If you evacuated from your home due to Hurricane IDA, you may have insurance coverage for additional living expenses under either their homeowners or renters insurance policies.
Additional living expenses (ALE), also known as Loss of Use. This provision in your insurance policy pays the additional costs of living away from home if you cannot live there due to mandatory evacuation or as a result of wind damage due to Hurricane Ida. Please note, many parishes did not issue a mandatory evacuation decree. However, government officials issued mandatory evacuations for residents outside levee protection system and other vulnerable locations.
ALE coverage pays for hotel bills, restaurant, meals and other costs, over and above your usual living expenses. It can also include storage fees, mileage if you have to drive farther to work, pet boarding and laundry. Even utilities that are more expensive in your temporary home may be included. Also, you are entitled to stay in a place comparable in size and quality to your house.
The ALE coverage in your homeowners policy has limits, either a percentage of your dwelling coverage, typically 20 percent, or a time limit, usually 12 months.
If you rent out part of your house, ALE also covers you for the rent that you would have collected from your tenant if your home had not been destroyed. This is sometimes insured on an actual-loss-sustained basis (what the homeowner would have earned had the loss not occurred).
Unfortunately, if you went to a hotel because your power is out, you won’t be eligible for ALE reimbursement. ALE is only triggered through a mandatory evacuation or if your residence is considered uninhabitable due to wind damage (not flood damage).
Please note, if you had flood damage, the National Flood Insurance Program (flood policy) doesn’t include ALE. If you have a combination of wind and flood damage, you may have coverage under your wind/homeowners policy.
Our firm has prosecuted over 2000 wind and flood claims since Hurricane Katrina. You can call us, at no obligation, if you have any questions about any aspect of your hurricane claim. Also, you can listen to our radio show “All Things Legal” on Sunday mornings from 8-10 on WWL 870 AM/105.3 FM/Audacy.com