Alternative accommodation insurance claim

[Snookums97]

Having a lot of difficulty with our insurance claim (which is a whole other thread in itself) but we are expecting that we will need to go into alternative accommodation due to the issues with our property as it would not be feasible to stay in our house as we have a very young child. We've been told to expect to be out of the house for at least three months, but more likely at least six or more months...

Please could I have people's experience of going into alternative accommodation and what we need to be thinking about...?

Hopeful bump..

I had a terrible fire in 2009. No one was hurt but we all had to leave. We got put in a hotel for 2 weeks. We were supposed to have 2 bedroom one for DH and me and one for 2 DS's. The hotel were very good and allowed my DS's to have their own rooms for 2 weeks as they were not fully booked. Then we had to move as they had prior bookings, booking out the whole hotel. We moved to a Premier Inn for for 3 weeks. Then we found a rental property for 6 months. We had full cover with insurance and they paid all our hotel and Premier Inn expenses also breakfast each day and gave us all a £7 a day living expense each towards food as obviously we couldn't cook and we had to do laundry at a launderette. Once we moved into rental property they paid our rent. They paid all expenses to have our own home restored properly. I found it really traumatic. We got back in our own house about 8 1/2 month's after the fire.

Currently in AA follow massive escape of water.. My insurers were incredibly slow (we were in damp, mouldy property for 2 months). Rental is massively expensive here for like for like and limited. They massively pushed back on AA and wanted us to go into a small house 10 miles away. I held out and in the end and got something suitable.

Good point is they are pushing claim on, because they feel rent is expensive, bad news is I know they will push us to give notice (2 months) on basis of a timescale from contractor (and of course there’s no guarantee work will be done on time).

I had to pay the deposit - they said as I was getting back they wouldn’t pay (this was over 7.5k).

I imagine if you are happy to go in whatever they choose they’ll be fine, but I held out for something similar because I knew we would be in for a year. We both work from home and I knew it would just be a disaster if we squeezed in somewhere and tried to work in a kitchen/diner (also I paid for an expensive policy of home insurance with a high level of AA (300k) for this reason).

In terms of tips:

• You say difficulties think about paying for your own loss adjuster (yes you have to pay but they will earn their money back in terms of negotiating for your).
• AA cover is meant to last for 2 years so you can work out a monthly rental (moving costs, bills have to come out as well).
• you are entitled for like for like (subject to sufficient coverage)
• fine suitable properties and suggest to Insurer
• lots of landlords don’t like break clauses at 6 months (insurers do like them). Given your time frames they may push for air b and b (or even hotel). You have to be reasonable (so you can’t insist you have a property for a year because landlord won’t give you a break clause, but you also are entitled to security and not having to move/live in a hotel
• you may have to pay deposit upfront (if that may be difficult push for an interim payment now on things like contents)
• you may have to pay 2nd set of bills on other property and claim back (again be prepared
• shout loudly, push for what you want, you are a number to an insurer, make them want to get your property fixed, you back in and not having to deal with you.