Additional Living Expense Insurance

Definition of "Additional living expense insurance"

Additional Living Expense Insurance is a type of coverage present on several types of Homeowner’s Insurance that reimburses additional costs caused because of the insured’s claim.

Let’s put it in a scenario so it’s easier to visualize:

Homeowner Sarah has her house trashed because of an Act of God: a hurricane has ravaged her city and the strong winds made a tree fall on her roof and the water damaged her whole kitchen and appliances. She first stayed at a hotel, while the insurance company was figuring out the extent of the damage. When they found out, one week later, that it would take 6 months to rebuild the house, she had to rent a house for her family to go to.

Both the cost of staying at a hotel and the rent of the temporary house are covered by the Additional Living Expense Insurance.

Like the name says, any additional living expense caused by whatever peril that damaged your house is covered by this type of insurance. For instance: if, because of it all, Sarah – who used to take her kids to school walking and spent zero dollars doing that – now needs to drive them there, the gas money is all covered by the additional living expense insurance. If she now spends $100 a month with it, on top of the $50 she used to spend, then she gets $100 from the company and still pays for that $50.
Additional Living Expenses insurance coverage usually provides from 10-20% of the structural coverage of the home and is basically a way of maintaining normalcy in an otherwise chaotic moment. It makes us confident that, should anything happen, it will all be fine and we won’t have to spend more than we used to.

Real Estate tips:

Use The OFFICIAL Real Estate Agent Directory® to connect with a real estate agent capable of guiding you through all types of Home Insurance policies! 

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Insurance Terms

Partial payment of medical service expenses required in group health insurance, in addition to the membership fee. For example, for each visit of a physician a member may be required to pay ...

Standard for insurance regulation in New York State and a model for insurance regulation elsewhere. For example, the standard fire policy was first adopted in New York State. Similarly, ...

Intense combustion resulting in a flame or glow. In order for the fire peril to be covered under property insurance, the fire must be a hostile fire, not a friendly fire. ...

Minimum standard of financial health for an insurance company, where assets exceed liabilities. State laws require insurance regulators to step in when solvency of an insurer is threatened ...

Purchasing bond investments that mature at different time intervals. ...

Accounting procedures that defer the full funding of a life insurance net level premium reserve to accommodate the policy acquisition cost in the early years of a policy. First-year policy ...

Regulation set forth by the national association of insurance commissioners (naic) to govern life insurance sales illustrations. Includes the following major provisions: POLICY OWNER must ...

System of charges to an insured that fluctuates according to the loss experience of that insured. This is a form of experience rating. ...

Contractual agreement between two parties in which they agree to exchange a stream of interest payments on either a fixed rate for a floating rate or a floating rate for a fixed rate. The ...

Popular Insurance Questions