Temporary Insurance Housing Plano TX

What is Temporary Insurance Housing?

Temporary insurance housing is short-term, month-to-month accommodation used by homeowners who experience damage to their homes. Unexpected accidents from a fire or water leak and natural disasters such as hail, wind and tornadoes cause damage to a home. If the damage and repair effort makes the home uninhabitable, home insurance policies have a “Loss of Use” provision. This provision covers the cost of short-term housing.  With repairs taking three to six months and longer, the homeowner’s expense of renting temporary accommodation is covered by their insurance policy.

Insurance housing is the same concept as the more widely known term, corporate housing. Each is a temporary stay in a furnished and provisioned facility (hotel, apartment, townhome or home). The difference is insurance housing is referenced when a damage claim is made and  the insurance company pays for the temporary accommodation on behalf of the homeowner.  

Our Approach to Insurance Housing 

ANGR Properties understands the anxiety and emotional distress placed on a family after a catastrophic event. The damage to the home is swift and sudden. There is no time to plan contingencies. Few homeowners have experienced previous damage to their homes, so there is a lot of confusion. 

We Partner with all Major Insurance Housing Providers 

We work with all the major 3rd party insurance housing providers and have helped numerous families and pets. This experience and knowledge is a godsend to homeowners as we help them navigate the often confusing and emotional effort to secure temporary housing.

“Feels Like Home” Setup

With repairs taking on average three to six months and longer, our homes are extensively furnished and abundantly provisioned that provide a comforting, “feels like home” experience.

More than just the bare minimum, our homes are equipped for a lengthy stay. You’ll be surprised and delighted by the extensive kitchen setup for cooking, eating and baking. For restful sleeping, there are comfortable beds with ample pillows, linens and blankets. HDTVs are provided. High-speed internet and wifi makes working from home and entertaining streaming convenient and fast. And for the dogs, all homes have fenced yards and walking trails nearby.

A Homeowner’s Guide to Insurance Housing

Since most homeowners are not familiar with insurance housing, we created this overview of the process. Hopefully it helps!

How Does Insurance Housing Work?

A home insurance policy covers various perils and liabilities. Most homeowners understand the key components of their policy but may not be  aware of a section called Loss of Use. 

Loss of use, sometimes referred to as Section D, has a provision for Additional Living Expenses (ALE). It’s this ALE provision that pays for temporary expenses such as accommodation. It’s also used for other additional living expenses if required.

How Much ALE Money is Available 

There is not a hard-fast answer. Funds and procedures can vary based on the insurance carrier, type of policy and any item adjustments within the policy. Talk to your agent to fully understand your policy’s terms.

In general, the total amount of ALE dollars available depends on the insured value of your home. Policies factor 10% to 30% of a dwelling’s insured value for ALE. For example, if an insured home is valued at $500,000 there is $50,000 to $150,000 available as a pool of money to apply to temporary housing and other required ALE expenses. The percentage factor is clearly stated in your policy.

This amount of money becomes a “cap” for the total available money that is used for accommodation and other ALE expenses if applicable. Given the inflationary environment, material and labor shortages and extended timeframe for repairs, it may be prudent to review your current policy with your agent and explore a 30% factor if it’s a relatively inexpensive premium increase.

Additionally, some policies and certain States (eg. Colorado) use a timeframe limit not a dollar value. In these situations, coverage will last for up to 12 months with option to purchase extended coverage for up to 24 months.

Contact Your Insurance Company

After a natural disaster or accident causes home damage, call your insurance company or broker/agent to start a claim. The insurance company will assign an adjuster who becomes your initial point of contact. This adjuster usually works with a field adjuster to assess the extent of damage.

The insurance adjuster will review the policy, assess the damage and repair estimate and be the person who approves temporary housing. This process can take a few days to a week or more. 

If your home damage is catastrophic, the insurance company can approve immediate accommodation usually in a hotel. Once settled, a more “permanent” temporary housing solution can be sourced.

How To Find Accommodation – Insurance Housing Providers

If temporary housing is required, the adjuster often uses the services of a 3rd party insurance housing provider. We work with all the major companies such as ALE Solutions, Assured Relocation, CRS Temporary Housing, Sedgwick Temporary Housing (previously Temporary Accommodation) and THD. They’re in business to find you “equivalent” housing. 

Help them in the search by setting up key criteria. 

• How far away from your home (miles/time) are you prepared to accept 
• Is there a specific school that you need to be near
• Do you need a fenced yard for your dog

Depending on the time of year and location, finding “equivalent” housing can take a few weeks. If your home is immediately uninhabitable, hotels and extended stay hotels are a quick solution. This accommodation can be organized quickly within 24 hours. 

However, if the home damage is not catastrophic, the homeowner can continue to live in their house for a period of time before the major repair starts. This provides additional time to find appropriate temporary housing. 

While hotels and particularly extended stay hotels are good options, if you have children and pets, it’s not an ideal setup. A better solution for the family especially for a long, multi-month stay is a single-family home.

How To Find Accommodation – Search Yourself

The representatives at the insurance housing providers are experts in finding accommodation. They have a large network of contacts. However, homeowners can help by searching and coordinating any finds with the housing specialist at the housing provider.

Google 

Googling terms such as “corporate housing near me” (corporate housing is a much more widely used term than insurance housing) will display furnished housing options. Most results displayed are apartments, but single-family options such as homes ANGR Properties provide are displayed in search results.

Real Estate Sites

Search real estate sites like Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com for rentals. Most rentals listed are traditional long-term (1-year) rentals. Filter the search with terms such as “short-term” and “furnished” or both to narrow the results and identify appropriate options. 

Vacation Rental Sites

Vacation sites such as AirBnB and VRBO can be useful, although they focus more on short-term stays. Set the length of stay to 1 or even 2 months or longer. This filters out the many weekend-oriented offerings and helps find hosts who are focused on longer-term insurance and corporate housing offerings. Read the property description and find the ones that talk about corporate or insurance housing. It’s much better to work with property owners whose focus is on longer-term, month-to-month rentals. 

Other Options

Unfortunately, there isn’t a great site to search. So, the task is time-consuming and frustrating. CorporateHousing.com was good, but has fallen in usefulness in recent years. Corporatehousingbyowner.com is another site but it can be hit or miss.

Coordinate Efforts with Housing Provider

As potential locations are discovered, share the results with the representative at the insurance housing provider. Let them do further investigation and coordinate the details with the insurance adjuster and property owner.

Final Steps

Once the insurance adjuster reviews the potential accommodation and gives a “go-ahead”, the homeowner can visit the property (strongly recommended and often required). This is an opportunity to verify the home meets the needs and a great time to meet the property manager/landlord.

After the house visit, the homeowner will advise the representative if the accommodation is acceptable or not.

If proceeding, the next step is usually completing an application that the property manager/landlord requires. The representative will assist in coordinating all the follow on procedures. This includes payment on the homeowner’s behalf and facilitating any lease agreements required (lease is signed between homeowner and property owner, not the 3rd party insurance provider). If additional services or furniture are required (eg. a crib, a desk or chair), the representative will facilitate any final components.

What Happens if More Time is Needed?

The average initial lease term for insurance housing is three months. It can be just one month if the adjuster isn’t fully finished with their assessment. Longer terms occur when the adjuster determines the damage is extensive and more time is required for repair. Regardless of the initial term, extensions can be accommodated with 30 days’ notice.

From our experience, every insurance housing guest we’ve hosted has extended their stay beyond the initial term. It’s not surprising given the uncertainty of the supply chain, availability of labor and numerous unforeseen issues occurring as repairs get underway. 

Reputable insurance housing property providers like ANGR Properties understand this situation and are more than happy to accommodate extensions. While most offer a 30-day notice to extend or terminate the lease, they will give the homeowner even more leeway than 30 days.