I am not using my own loss assessor so have muddled through this painful process for the last year.

Background: I have a holiday home and therefore holiday home insurance and last summer my home suffered an escape of water causing considerable amount of damage which affected most of the rooms in the house.

I have appointed my own surveyor who has drawn up a Schedule of Works and we have received bids and are now awaiting for commencement of works from the adjuster.

The house is uninhabitable and whilst it was being dried, which took 6 weeks, I stayed with a relative. When the work commences I will again need to be present on a day to day basis and will again stay with a relative. My Policy states that:

Temporary Accommodation or Loss of Hiring Charges

a) The cost of similar temporary accommodation in the event of the Home

being so damaged as to render it uninhabitable by any cause for which

indemnity is provided under Section 1A of this Policy, provided that Our

liability shall not exceed a sum equivalent to 20% of the Sum Insured

on the Buildings in any one Period of Insurance.

The adjuster denied my claim for reimbursement for temporary accommodation because 'I do not permanently reside at the property as the owner/occupier'.

When you have holiday home insurance it is implied that you 'do not reside permanently at the property'

What can I do?

It is a holiday home, so the Insurance is about you actually being in residence or if you had bookings the rental that was lost.

They won't pay for you having to be in the area staying with a relative.

Sorry I don't understand your reply, could you elaborate. Thanks

Sorry I don't understand your reply, could you elaborate. Thanks

You can only claim for a situation, if the policy wording covers it.

Explain to me after reading the policy wording, why you expected to be covered for your accommodation costs because of the holiday home being flooded.

If you could evidence that you had booked flights etc with the intention of being permanently resident at the holiday home when the flood event occured, then you might be covered. If you had taken paid for bookings from holidaymakers for the holiday home, which you had to refund to them, you would have been covered for the loss of rent.

The policy wording does not provide for your expenses in staying with your relative, because you were not resident in the property and had no paid for bookings.

The holiday home suffered substantial damage and requires major re-instatement work. I need to be there to allow the builders to carry out the work. Since it is uninhabitable what am I supposed to do, where am I supposed to stay?

I still don't fully understand your answer with regard to the temporary accommodation.

The holiday home suffered substantial damage and requires major re-instatement work. I need to be there to allow the builders to carry out the work. Since it is uninhabitable what am I supposed to do, where am I supposed to stay?

 

I still don't fully understand your answer with regard to the temporary accommodation.

In short, you have not explained that you lost your accommodation at the time of the actual event or lost money due to cancelled booking. If you were staying in the holiday home when the flood happened or had paid for booking you should be covered.

You are trying to claim expenses for accommodation, after the flood has happened. The policy wording does not cover your expenses for simply wanting to be near to the house while the work is done. You don't have to be there. You could give contractors a key and they could get on with the work.

Also the Insurers could say that you could go home and stay in your main residence.

Sorry but Insurance will only cover what the policy states and not what you think they should be paying for.

Yes I am trying to claim accommodation expenses after the flood has happened in order to manage the work that needs to be done. I don't understand how one interprets the exclusions you mention, just from the brief paragraph I re-printed above. This is not an accusation just trying to understand how this can be interpreted in the way you state.

Yes I am trying to claim accommodation expenses after the flood has happened in order to manage the work that needs to be done. I don't understand how one interprets the exclusions you mention, just from the brief paragraph I re-printed above. This is not an accusation just trying to understand how this can be interpreted in the way you state.

I have offered my opinion and can't add anything.

If you are unhappy about this, you should be contacting your Insurance company asking them to pay for your accommodation expenses. There is little point having a discussion here about it, as I am not a decision maker at your Insurance company.

In short, you have not explained that you lost your accommodation at the time of the actual event or lost money due to cancelled booking. If you were staying in the holiday home when the flood happened or had paid for booking you should be covered.

 

Hello there.

Uncle Bulgaria knows his stuff, but I understand that policy wordings are hard to understand for the general public.

Other forum members may comment later, but I'm not sure if you answered the question above?

HB

I had a booking at the time of the event and this was refunded.

I had a booking at the time of the event and this was refunded.

Yes they will pay anything that is directly related to the actual loss event, but what you are trying to claim for now is accommodation costs related to the actual repair works. You want to be near to the holiday home while the works are being done and your policy does not cover that.

As I said before, it is your choice to want to be near to the holiday home while the works are being completed. Some people would just remove items they wanted to secure, hand over the keys to someone who was going to supervise the contract works ( surveyor or contractors supervisor) and let them get on with it. They might visit towards the end of completion of the works, to make sure it was up to standard.

I think you just misunderstand what Insurers will pay for which is arrangements in place before the loss event happened. If you were there at the time of loss or had arrangements to be there before the loss or had bookings they would have paid for temporary accommodation or covered the rent lost. But they certainly won't pay your accommodation months afterwards, because you have chosen to be present when the works take place.

As I have said, if you are not happy with the Insurers not paying for the alternative accommodation while you are out there overseeing the works, you should be raising this with your Insurance company.

Got it ! Thank you very much for helping me to understand this.