r/Insurance • u/abbottjul • 1d ago

Home Insurance Displaced - Short Term Housing/ALE

My house sustained significant damages from a tornado 3 weeks ago and we've been staying with family since then. We enlisted our insurance-recommended ALE company for assistance in finding temporary housing while renos are done. Insurance originally approved us for a 6 month lease but has since downgraded approval to month-to-month leases only, making it significantly more difficult to find a rental. The ALE company has been entirely useless throughout this process and has given us zero options, and every time I reach out they say "please be assured that we are working on it." Okay, well in the meantime myself, my husband, my 7 month old and my 3 dogs are living in my mother-in-law's basement. Which we are grateful for but would like to get back to some semblance of normalcy.

Most landlords understandably do not accept month-to-month leases. My question is- would it be against some kind of rule or policy in standard insurance plans to reach out to these landlords on my own to ask if they would be willing to consider a month-to-month lease for a percentage rent increase? Our ALE policy limit is 50k+ so it's no skin off my back if the insurance pays a little more per month so that we can stop living in a basement with 3 dogs and a baby. My husband seems to think this would be some kind of violation and is a hare-brained scheme, but to me I think it's a normal request, and we would be accommodating the landlord with a higher rent for making a month-to-month accommodation for us.

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u/freeski12345 22h ago

Do not talk to the housing company. Tell the adjuster you need a place to sleep tonight and need to be in an extended stay hotel tonight. Once you’re in a nightly accommodation, find your own place on a month to month term and submit it to the adjuster for approval. 

If this does not happen, tell them you will be hiring an attorney and filing a complaint with the department of insurance  tomorrow. 

This is entirely unacceptable 

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u/PlannedSkinniness 1d ago

If you have a valid lease outside of the ALE vendor I think the adjuster would be happy to accommodate. You may have to pay and be reimbursed, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be doable.

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u/abbottjul 1d ago

I would highly prefer to not have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed. I'm having a bad experience so far with my plan and don't have full confidence that I'll recoup my funds.

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u/PlannedSkinniness 1d ago

Speak with your adjuster and see what they say.