What Does ALE Cover — And What It Doesn't

The single most common misconception I hear — Garr: confirm this is the one you hear most; swap in your real example — is that ALE "pays for you to live somewhere else." It doesn't pay your whole new cost of living. It pays the difference between your normal expenses and your temporary ones. Understanding that one word — additional — prevents most of the disputes that slow a claim down.

What ALE covers

Additional Living Expenses (called Loss of Use in many policy forms) reimburses the reasonable increase in living costs after a covered loss makes your home uninhabitable:

• Temporary lodging — hotel, short-term rental, corporate apartment, or an on-site RV. This is the biggest line item. See does homeowners insurance pay for a hotel?
• Increased food costs — the extra you spend eating out because you have no kitchen.
• Pet boarding — reasonable costs to house pets you can't keep with you.
• Storage — for belongings that can't stay in the damaged home.
• Extra transportation — added mileage if your temporary home is farther from work or school.
• Laundry and other incidental increases tied directly to the displacement.

What ALE does not cover

• Your mortgage or rent — that expense exists either way, so it isn't additional.
• Expenses without documentation — receipts and a clear before/after baseline are what get reimbursed.
• Upgrades — ALE covers a comparable standard of living, not an upgrade over your normal one.
• Losses from an uncovered peril — if the cause of damage isn't covered by the policy, ALE doesn't apply.

The two limits that end ALE

Every policy caps ALE two ways, and it ends at whichever comes first:

1. A time limit — commonly 12 or 24 months.
2. A dollar limit — often expressed as a percentage (frequently 20–30%) of the dwelling coverage.

Read the Loss of Use section of the declarations page for the specific numbers. When a repair timeline is long, the dollar cap is usually what matters — and it's exactly where a lower monthly housing cost extends how far the coverage stretches. That math is the heart of the ALE housing guide and the cost calculator.

Why the housing choice drives the whole claim

Because lodging is the largest ALE line item, the housing decision quietly sets the size of the claim. A hotel maximizes the daily rate and the food line (no kitchen) and the pet line (boarding). An on-site RV tends to shrink all three at once. If you coordinate claims, the adjuster page has the direct-billing detail.