Renters insurance policies can also provide a renter with additional living expenses if you are forced to leave your rental property because of storm damage or some other catastrophe. The additional living expenses will help you defray the costs of living in a hotel and eating all of your meals in restaurants while your home is uninhabitable. Most insurance companies offer the option to provide additional living expenses as a feature to your homeowners insurance or renters insurance policy. Many insurance policies call the provision either additional living expenses or loss of use provision. So, what is an additional living expenses provision? Additional living expenses insurance coverage, or loss of use coverage, will pay for your cost of living away from your home if it is damaged or destroyed and you need to file a claim.

Many homeowners and renters forget that there is a large cost associated with having to leave your home that is damaged, even if you have to leave for a short period of time. Living in a hotel for as short as a week can quickly begin to add up. The same can be said for the cost of a family having to eat all of its meals outside of the home. Having an additional living expense option on your renters insurance can help defray some of those costs. With this option, your insurance company will provide you with the cost of living away from your home if you cannot stay there because of damage it has sustained, for example from a tornado. Most renters insurance policies that have an additional living expense provision will pay for hotel bills, meals eaten in restaurants, and other miscellaneous living expenses that are incurred while your house or your apartment is being repaired. Since renting and owning a home are significantly different, you may find that this type of loss provision may only extend to renters until they can find another place to live.

So, how much will the insurance company pay for the loss of use of your rental or for additional living expenses? It important that you check with your renters insurance policy’s fine print to understand the details. Each policy and every state is different. But, you may find that some insurance companies will provide you with up to 20% of your total policy’s value for additional living expenses. Or, you may find that an insurance company will want to know your actual loss that was sustained. In that case, you will need to keep all of the receipts from your hotel and restaurant bills. It is always a good practice to keep these types of receipts after you file a claim anyway. Another important thing to remember is that your insurance company is only going to pay for the additional costs that have incurred from your normal standard of living. The insurance policy is not going to pay for you to start living at a five star hotel. The insurance policy will only pay for you to maintain your current standard of living and not profit from the tragedy.