Post Tubbs Fire in 2017, we relocated to Florence, OR. State Farm is paying for our rental house, rental furniture and part of our utilities and mileage since moving here in July 2018, while we look to buy a house in a very tight market. Our 13th adjuster and his manager now say that they are denying mileage ALE and that it should not have been paid us since leaving Santa Rosa. They say “based on your relocation to another state and out of the geographical area of your previous location additional mileage would no longer apply.” We believe they are wrong and see nothing in the policy to support their decision. We have been charging them approx 50 miles per day for both vehicles to look for property and/or possible home to buy. Does moving out of state affect mileage ALE? We believe we would have not incurred costs for driving to pursue buying a home if not for the fire. Thanks for a response.
You may already have resolved this issue, our apologies for the delayed reply. We have been swamped with requests for help countering adjusters’ positions on ALE benefits. If there’s no wording in the policy that restricts your ALE benefits to expenses incurred in state – and as long as you’re incurring the expenses as a result of losing the use of your home – they should be reimburseable. My guess is that 50 miles per day doesn’t seem reasonable to them, so they’ve come up with an excuse not to accept that part of your claim. If you can document that you are actually driving 50 miles per day to look at homes to buy, you should prevail. Claiming mileage incurred while looking for a replacement home is not on the list of typical covered items we mention in our tips on this topic, but many people are doing so and duking it out with their insurers. Documenting expenses with specificity usually is the key to getting them covered…