What Is ALE Coverage With Home Insurance?

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Avoiding Renter's Regret: Understanding Renter's Insurance Coverage

Moving into my first apartment brought along a whole series of new experiences. I didn't realize that the property insurance my landlord carried wouldn't cover my belongings. I was lucky to find out before anything happened, and I spent a lot of time researching the difference between renter's insurance and the property coverage for landlords. I built this site to share all of the information that I learned, including the insurance coverage best practices I picked up along the way. If you're new to renting and don't have any renter's insurance, I hope the information here helps you to see how it could benefit you and what you need to do to get it.

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What Is ALE Coverage With Home Insurance?

4 October 2021
 Categories: Insurance, Blog

When you buy a homeowner's insurance plan, it might come with additional living expense (ALE) coverage. If it does not come with ALE, you can add it to your policy. Unfortunately, you might not understand what ALE is, so you might not think you need it. You should have it, though, and here are several things to know about it to help you understand what this coverage is and why you need it.

What It Is

ALE coverage is unique protection you get with your home insurance that only kicks in if you must move out of your house after a home insurance claim. It might not cover all incidents and perils, though. It only provides coverage if you must move out due to a forced peril. For example, suppose a storm causes damage to your house. If your home insurance covers the storm damage, it will also provide ALE coverage if you must move out of the house for a few weeks or months. ALE is designed to help you pay for your extra expenses when you must temporarily vacate your home.

What It Covers

You might understand what ALE is now, but you might have questions about what it covers. Here is a list of some of the things it might cover if you have to move out of your house:

  • The cost to stay in a hotel or apartment
  • The extra utility costs you must pay after the incident
  • The increase in your food expenses
  • The costs for storage
  • The extra costs for gas

When you move out of your house after a covered peril, you might have increased expenses as a result. ALE should cover most of the increases in your expenses.

Why It Is Vital

The reason having ALE is so important is because you can incur a lot of extra expenses if you have to move out of your house for a while after a peril. During this time, you will still have to pay all your normal household expenses, such as your mortgage and utilities. You will also have to pay for another place to stay and all those expenses, too. If you do not have ALE coverage, you might suffer financially from this event.

If you want to fully protect yourself with your home insurance policy, you should make sure it includes ALE coverage. You can talk to your agent to learn more about the coverage limits and options if you have any questions about it.