Additional living expenses (rehousing costs)
Cover that pays for the insured's temporary housing when their home has become uninhabitable after a covered loss, for the normal duration of repairs.
When a fire, major water damage or a natural disaster makes a home uninhabitable, the insured must live elsewhere during repairs. Additional living expenses cover, included in most homeowners policies, pays that cost, hotel, furnished rental, sometimes moving and storage costs, for the time needed for repairs, up to an amount or duration set in the policy. For a landlord, a similar cover pays lost rent. The actual duration depends less on the damage than on the availability of contractors and the speed of the loss assessment: after a disaster affecting thousands of homes, delays lengthen and caps may be reached. For the insurer, it is an item where the quality of claims handling, fast assessment and monitoring of works, directly reduces the cost.
A family whose house is flooded in November 2023 is rehoused in a furnished rental at 1,400 euros a month; repairs take nine months for lack of available contractors, that is 12,600 euros, while the policy caps rehousing at one year and 15,000 euros.
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