Erie Insurance Additional Living Expenses: What Erie Publishes, and a Trailer on Your Own Lot

When a covered loss makes a house unlivable, the part of a homeowners policy that pays for somewhere else to live goes by different names at different carriers, and the time and dollar limits sit in different places. This page is the Erie version: what the coverage is called, what the published wording says about how long and how much, and how a furnished travel trailer on your own property becomes the housing that coverage pays for. 1st Choice Living has placed trailers on homeowners’ own lots, nationwide, since 2004, and bills the carrier directly where the claim covers it.

Erie loss of use at a glance

The other four carriers side by side: loss of use coverage by insurance carrier.

Why this page quotes only Erie’s website

Erie does not publish the ErieSecure Home policy form on erieinsurance.com, and we did not find a copy posted by a state insurance department. So this page quotes only Erie’s own website, and it says less than our pages for carriers whose forms are public. Your policy booklet and declarations page are the words that govern your claim; ask your Erie agent for them.

What Erie says on its own website

“Additional Living Expenses offers coverage for your reasonable additional expenses from needing to reside somewhere else while the home is repaired. Up to 12 months of Additional Living Expenses coverage is provided automatically in our standard ErieSecure Home policies. If you upgrade into the Select or Plus ErieSecure Home Bundles that coverage is bumped up to 24 months for Additional Living Expenses.”

“We’ll help pay for additional living expenses, if you have to live somewhere else while your home is repaired.”

“If your home should become uninhabitable due to a covered loss, up to 20% of the dwelling amount will be paid for temporary living expenses.”

“Today, our geographic presence extends to locations in 12 states and the District of Columbia.”

A trailer on your own lot as your Additional Living Expenses housing

Nothing quoted above names a hotel, an apartment, or a trailer. The wording pays the increase in cost to keep your household at its normal standard of living while the house is uninhabitable, up to the limits. A furnished travel trailer delivered, leveled, and connected on your own property is one way to do that, and it keeps you next to the rebuild, your kids in their school, and your pets at home. Whether it is approved on your claim is up to your Erie adjuster. Here is how that approval usually comes together.

Erie's pages do not describe how temporary housing is approved, so the steps below are the general ones. Ask your Erie agent or adjuster which ErieSecure Home policy you have, standard, Select, or Plus, because Erie ties the 12 or 24 month period to that.

Erie lists homeowners coverage in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, and Wisconsin on its coverage by state page. We place trailers nationwide, and our state pages for Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia cover how those insurance departments explain Additional Living Expenses.

1. Open the claim and ask two questions. Does the claim include Additional Living Expenses, and what are the limit in dollars and the time period on your declarations page? Ask your Erie adjuster to confirm both in writing.
2. Say what housing you want. Tell your Erie adjuster you want a furnished travel trailer on your own property as your temporary housing, and ask what they need from the provider to approve it.
3. Call us or send the request form. We ask for the property address, how many people and pets need a place to sleep, the claim number, and the adjuster’s contact. Before anything is delivered we confirm the local rule on a temporary RV at your address; if a trailer on your lot is not the right fit for the property, we will tell you.
4. We send the written terms to the adjuster. The unit, the monthly rate, delivery and setup, and utility connections, so the approved cost is clear before delivery.
5. Direct billing where the claim covers it. On a covered claim we bill Erie directly under Additional Living Expenses, tracked against your limit, with site conditions documented at setup and again at takedown. That is $0 out of pocket for your family on a covered claim, and one named contact from the first call to pickup.
6. Already with a temporary housing company? We work with any temporary housing company. Ask the company handling your housing to place you with 1st Choice Living for a trailer on your own lot, and the billing runs the way their program is set up.

The full walkthrough of a placement is on on-site RV housing. If Erie pays you back rather than paying a provider, our guide to arranging your own temporary housing covers the questions to ask before you commit to anything.

Hurricane Isaias and other storms on an Erie claim

Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida are not on Erie's list of states where it offers homeowners coverage, so a Hurricane Isaias claim on the Gulf Coast is unlikely to be an Erie claim. If a storm, fire, or flood put you out of a house in one of Erie's states, our after a storm, after a house fire, and after a flood guides apply, and our Hurricane Isaias page shows how we work a large storm: local rules checked for the address, direct billing to the carrier where the claim covers it, and one named contact.

• Temporary housing after Hurricane Isaias
• Hurricane Isaias RV rules by county
• After a storm, after a house fire, and after a flood

Other carriers

Same questions, each carrier’s own words: State Farm, Allstate, USAA, Farmers, Liberty Mutual and Safeco, American Family, Travelers, Chubb, Nationwide, Auto-Owners. All eleven side by side: loss of use coverage by insurance carrier.

Questions homeowners with Erie claims ask