Alternate Accommodation

trinity_enigma

Hello all!

My MIL has suffered a heating oil leak somewhere around where it enters her property it is currently being investigated by her insurance company. When it originally happened she was becoming quite ill with a chest infection (probably worsened by the fumes as the entry point is next to her bedroom so she was breathing it in all night).

We decided it was probably best for her to move in with us for a little while, or at least until she was better (wouldn't you all like a DIL like me!) as we only live two doors down. As it turns out the leak is much worse than originally thought and her insurance company was contacted a few weeks ago and sent out people to assess the damage and figure out what was going on as well as testing the air and ground for toxicity.

We were obviously right to move her out as the air tests were terrible and she should definitely not be living there. Her claims handler has mentioned that she can have alternate accommodation and to either look around for a short term let or a guest house or she can carry on staying with us.

I finally get to my question - How much can we 'charge' to have her? As her insurers have not yet told her. We have no idea about this sort of thing and given that we live near the coast and are now officially 'in season' it can be an expensive place to stay. If we were given a choice we were thinking around £100 per week but is this too much/too little? We spend approx £700 on mortgage, bills etc would they ask that that amount is split fairly between the three of us and give us that amount? How does this work?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the ramble. :rotfl:

Quentin

Get her to speak to the adjuster dealing with her claim, and come to an agreement on how much she can have to pay for her accommodation.

(Is she taking up a room you normally rent out - in that case, charge her your going long term rate, and make sure she gets that agreed by the adjuster)

trinity_enigma

Nope its not a room we rent out, we just happen to be lucky enough to have two spare rooms.

Also I have only just thought of this- we bought our house from two family members who were left the house in a will but MIL actually owns part of it which acted as our deposit. Its a long and complicated story, but the thought is can we actually charge her insurers if MIL has a share in the house?

Quentin

You won't be charging her insurer. You will be charging her and she will get an allowance from the insurer.

trinity_enigma

Ok then will her insurer give her an allowance if it is she owns part of the house she will be staying in?

Quentin

Why not? (Assuming she has alternative accommodation in her policy benefits)

(They won't be interested in who's name is on the deeds!)

lil.smartie

Our insurers have paid £750 per month for 6 months (minimum short term let) Our house is a 3 bed semi in Wells and this is the going rate for rentals in the city. What's the rates like for a house share in your town?

Hope that helps!

rs65

Don’t want to sound pessimistic but is this going to be covered?

My policy covers heating fuel leaking from a fixed heating system (and alternative accommodation). Under the AD section it covers accidental damage to pipes and cables (no mention of alternative accommodation). Trace and access cover applies if the buildings are damaged.

If the leak is from corroded pipes (for example) would your MIL be covered?

TSx

I'd suggest they'd be looking at a disturbance allowance, possibly around £10 a day - in light of the fact she's staying with family (and she has a duty to mitigate the loss by taking the cheapest possible option). The only way she'll know is by speaking to them.

FlameCloud

trinity_enigma wrote: »

Ok then will her insurer give her an allowance if it is she owns part of the house she will be staying in?

If this is the case I would make it exceptionally clear to insurers that she owns a proportion of the property. Direct Line vs Khan is a case where Mr Khan neglected to mention the fact that he owned the rental property to the insurers and then charged them full rent. Direct Line were able to avoid the entire claim due to the fraud on the accomodation aspect of the claim. It is a more extreme case as it involved rental agreements but something to bear in mind.

As for allowances, I would allow at most £15 a night for it, I doubt they would be pushed higher.

FlameCloud

rs65 wrote: »

Don’t want to sound pessimistic but is this going to be covered?

My policy covers heating fuel leaking from a fixed heating system (and alternative accommodation). Under the AD section it covers accidental damage to pipes and cables (no mention of alternative accommodation). Trace and access cover applies if the buildings are damaged.

If the leak is from corroded pipes (for example) would your MIL be covered?

It would obviously depend on the insurer but alot of policies include cover escape of oil (its normally just below EOW in policy wordings). Escape of Oil claims can be a complete pain in the !!!! to deal with, I have seen several houses practically rebuilt due to the contamination of the sub soil.

Its one of the few cases where as an adjuster you need to realistically consider a total loss if the leak is bad.