Please assure me about insurance
November 2, 2009 7:10 AM Subscribe
I live in an apartment building, and my neighbors recently caused some pretty significant damage to my unit (the details are irrelevant.) Anyway, I'm going to have to vacate while repairs are done. My insurer will pay for my stay in a hotel, and my landlord has offered to re-imburse my rent for whatever time I'm not occupying the apartment. Is this ok? I know: YANML.
I am a little bit worried that I might have some legal responsibility to disclose the money my landlord is providing me with to my insurer. Am I just being neurotic? I've never dealt with insurance companies before, so I don't really know what I'm doing. I don't know how long I'll need to stay in a hotel - probably somewhere between 3 and 8 weeks - but the hotel stay will certainly be significantly more expensive than whatever rent I get back. (To give you an idea, I pay about $1100/mo rent, and I'm looking to stay at a reasonable mid-range chain hotel that charges about $110/night.) I am covered for re-location expenses that are about 10-15x more than whatever I'll get back from my landlord. Nonetheless, I'm a bit worried that if my insurer knew, they would want to deduct that amount from whatever they reimburse me for, since I could use the money my landlord is giving me toward housing. Does my insurer care?
I live in Ontario, Canada, and my insurer is Intact.
I am a little bit worried that I might have some legal responsibility to disclose the money my landlord is providing me with to my insurer. Am I just being neurotic? I've never dealt with insurance companies before, so I don't really know what I'm doing. I don't know how long I'll need to stay in a hotel - probably somewhere between 3 and 8 weeks - but the hotel stay will certainly be significantly more expensive than whatever rent I get back. (To give you an idea, I pay about $1100/mo rent, and I'm looking to stay at a reasonable mid-range chain hotel that charges about $110/night.) I am covered for re-location expenses that are about 10-15x more than whatever I'll get back from my landlord. Nonetheless, I'm a bit worried that if my insurer knew, they would want to deduct that amount from whatever they reimburse me for, since I could use the money my landlord is giving me toward housing. Does my insurer care?
I live in Ontario, Canada, and my insurer is Intact.
I guess Anonymous's logic might be something along these lines:
1) I usually spend X per month on rent.
2) I'll have to spend Y per month on this hotel room
3) So I should be re-imbursed Y-X
4) But I'm really being reimbursed Y.
I don't know the answer. Can you make an anonymous phone call to the insurance company and ask what their policy is?
posted by muddgirl at 7:27 AM on November 2, 2009
1) I usually spend X per month on rent.
2) I'll have to spend Y per month on this hotel room
3) So I should be re-imbursed Y-X
4) But I'm really being reimbursed Y.
I don't know the answer. Can you make an anonymous phone call to the insurance company and ask what their policy is?
posted by muddgirl at 7:27 AM on November 2, 2009
I think, technically, your insurer is covering you for your financial loss. In this case, you are not being charged rent, so you are not losing anything on rent. Your insurer may have language in the policy that says something about covering the cost of accommodation on top of your cost of rent, or they may say that you get the cost of accommodation regardless of whether you are paying rent or not. Check your policy, as it is your contract and will tell you what you signed up for.
If you are only covered for the cost of rent you are paying (plus additional cost of accommodation at a hotel), you should make sure you don't double-dip. Could end your policy and cause you to pay back the difference. Again, it should all be spelled out in your policy. If not, call as a new customer and inquire about what the policy would cover in this eventuality.
posted by qwip at 7:33 AM on November 2, 2009 [1 favorite]
If you are only covered for the cost of rent you are paying (plus additional cost of accommodation at a hotel), you should make sure you don't double-dip. Could end your policy and cause you to pay back the difference. Again, it should all be spelled out in your policy. If not, call as a new customer and inquire about what the policy would cover in this eventuality.
posted by qwip at 7:33 AM on November 2, 2009 [1 favorite]
Mmm, I read the confusion as more like, "The insurance company is giving me money, but my landlord is also not ASKING me for money -- so I'd actually need less money overall, is that going to be a problem?"
Which is why I thought no, because it's two different KINDS of money. It looks like the insurer is strictly paying for the hotel expenses and that's it -- the landlord reimbursing part of the rent is a separate issue, I would imagine. If the insurer were paying for hotel expenses AND reimbursing the rent, AND the landlord were ALSO reimbursing the rent at the same time, that'd be different. But it looks like the insurer is leaving the rent issue alone for the landlord to handle -- and that's how the landlord's handling it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:46 AM on November 2, 2009
Which is why I thought no, because it's two different KINDS of money. It looks like the insurer is strictly paying for the hotel expenses and that's it -- the landlord reimbursing part of the rent is a separate issue, I would imagine. If the insurer were paying for hotel expenses AND reimbursing the rent, AND the landlord were ALSO reimbursing the rent at the same time, that'd be different. But it looks like the insurer is leaving the rent issue alone for the landlord to handle -- and that's how the landlord's handling it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:46 AM on November 2, 2009
Nthing - read the contract -- and if necessary phone them anonymously and ask them to help you read the contract.
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:14 AM on November 2, 2009
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:14 AM on November 2, 2009
I'm not sure why this is a problem.
A hotel room is not your home. Sure you have a place to sleep, but you won't have regular access to your possessions or enjoyment of your home while things are getting repaired. This use and enjoyment of the apartment you rent represents significant value, and this is why the landlord is providing a break in the rent.
**While the work is being done, make sure your valuables (heirlooms, electronics, etc.) and personal papers (anything containing financial or social security information) are secured or stored at another location. Strangers will be in your home and you will not be around to make sure items aren't damaged or stolen.
posted by jbenben at 9:33 AM on November 2, 2009
A hotel room is not your home. Sure you have a place to sleep, but you won't have regular access to your possessions or enjoyment of your home while things are getting repaired. This use and enjoyment of the apartment you rent represents significant value, and this is why the landlord is providing a break in the rent.
**While the work is being done, make sure your valuables (heirlooms, electronics, etc.) and personal papers (anything containing financial or social security information) are secured or stored at another location. Strangers will be in your home and you will not be around to make sure items aren't damaged or stolen.
posted by jbenben at 9:33 AM on November 2, 2009
I'm not sure why this is a problem.
It might be a problem because his insurance contract might specifically say that the money is only to cover expenses on top of his normal monthly expenses. Since neither you nor me can see the OP's contract, neither of us can say whether or not it's a problem.
posted by muddgirl at 9:44 AM on November 2, 2009
It might be a problem because his insurance contract might specifically say that the money is only to cover expenses on top of his normal monthly expenses. Since neither you nor me can see the OP's contract, neither of us can say whether or not it's a problem.
posted by muddgirl at 9:44 AM on November 2, 2009
One important factor here is that even if you were paying your landlord rent, you'd still need the hotel room, because you can't stay in your place due to the damage.
Another is, you know, what it says in the contract. As others have already said.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:06 PM on November 2, 2009
Another is, you know, what it says in the contract. As others have already said.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:06 PM on November 2, 2009
comment from a MeFite who would prefer to remain anonymous
Essentially this same thing happened to me a few years ago- in my case due to heinous negligence on the landlord's part that caused lots of damage to the building, tenants' property (mostly mine), and literally could have killed several people. Anyway, I did not mention the break on rent to the insurance company, nor the per diem money to the landlord. It was fine, and frankly given all the negligence, inconvenience, and damage to my stuff, I deserved more than that anyway and didn't feel guilty for a single second.posted by jessamyn at 2:51 PM on November 2, 2009
Other things to consider:
You may want to look into getting a Craigslist furnished sublet in your neighborhood instead of moving into a hotel. The cheapest hotel I could find was about $70/night, and it was located far away from my neighborhood. My apartment's repairs dragged on and on to about 6 weeks, and I managed to get a Craigslist sublet a block from my house for $700/month (about $23/night). That meant that less of my insurance payout went towards rent and more went towards replacing my damaged stuff. My insurer even agreed that it was reasonable to buy me a beater bike ($150 range) to make up for the fact that my sublet was so much farther from my gym, etc. It was probably a better deal for him than reimbusring gas mileage or parking if I'd had a car.
If you have pets, research how much it would cost to board them in a kennel, and your insurance will probably reimburse that amount, too. I left my cat with different friends, each for a couple weeks at a time during my 6 weeks' exile, and it was nice to be able to give them all a little bit of unexpected cash as a thank you after the fact.
Also keep restaurant receipts for the time you're away from home. My insurer paid for food costs that went over what I usually spend per week on food (I think I said $70 was my average), and they basically covered all my small restaurant bills (his rule of thumb was something like no alcohol, and I'm not buying you steak, but sandwiches and coffee type meals are no problem).
Replace all your stuff that got damaged and don't feel bad about selling the damaged goods on Craigslist or eBay if anything applies. I got a new bed out of my ordeal and they were gonna trash the old bed, so I asked if I could give it away on Clist (it was slightly damaged but since it was a great bed that was only 10 months old when this happened, it was still well worth owning for other people!) I gave it away for free, but in retrospect I could have sold it for a couple hundred bucks and the insurance guy would never have known.
Keep in mind that your insurance adjustor will probably end up screwing you over in some way in the end (like in my case, by deferring the final payout by THREE MONTHS! After all the short-term expenditures I had to go through to replace my stuff, eat in restaurants, etc, I was flat broke and he knew it, he was just ignoring my calls to delay taking cash out of his company's coffers), so you may as well take what you can get while you can get it.
This thread is closed to new comments.
* The amount of money you would have to spend on a hotel is X.
* The amount of money you would have to spend on rent is Y.
It looks like you're okay to me, because X and Y never are combined:
* Your insurer is giving you X.
* Your landlord is giving you a break on Y.
It'd be different if your insurer was giving you X AND Y, and your landlord saying "I'm giving you a break on Y." But that's not the case.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:16 AM on November 2, 2009