Loss of use on a renters policy

Additional cost, not total cost

The section reimburses the difference between what you normally spend and what you are now forced to spend, rather than everything you spend while displaced.

So temporary accommodation is generally covered, and the rent you were paying anyway is generally not — though a landlord may or may not continue charging it, which is a question for the lease rather than the policy.

• Temporary accommodation while the unit is uninhabitable
• The additional cost of meals where there is no kitchen
• Additional travel where the temporary home is further from work
• Storage of belongings during repairs
• Boarding for pets the temporary accommodation cannot take
• Laundry and similar costs the situation forces on you

How it is limited

Policies cap this section either as a proportion of the personal property limit or by a period of time, and the two behave very differently in a long displacement.

Either way it runs for the time reasonably required to make the unit habitable again, rather than until you have found somewhere you would prefer to live.

It ends when the place is habitable, which is not necessarily when you want to move back.

It follows the main claim

Loss of use only responds where the cause of the damage is itself covered. Flood is the common example: excluded on a renters policy, so the accommodation costs that follow a flood are generally excluded too.

This is the practical reason the exclusions matter more than they look like they do, and the reason contents-only flood cover exists separately.

When the damage started somewhere else

In a shared building this section is frequently triggered by something that had nothing to do with you — a fire two floors up, a burst pipe next door.

Your own policy responds to your displacement regardless of where the damage originated. Whether your insurer later recovers from whoever was responsible is their business and does not delay your claim.

Waiting for the landlord's insurer is the most common way renters lose weeks here. It covers the building and the landlord's liability, and it has no obligation to house you.

Keep every receipt

This section reimburses against evidence. Accommodation, meals, fuel, storage, boarding — keep all of it, and note what you would normally have spent, since the reimbursement is usually for the difference.

Tell the insurer before committing to anything substantial. Agreeing an arrangement in advance is faster than presenting an invoice afterwards and asking them to accept it.