After a major fire, a burst pipe flooding several flats or a collapsed roof, repairs take weeks, sometimes months. Meanwhile the family has to live somewhere – with relatives, in a rented flat, in a guesthouse –, the furniture sits in storage, and at the end of the month the question comes: who pays for this? Home insurance conditions answer this situation with a separate item that most clients do not even know about: rent for temporary accommodation, moving out, storage – collectively called ancillary costs or costs related to the insured event. As a broker, I see this cover going unused either because people do not know about it, or because nobody told them its condition – proof that the home is uninhabitable – in time. This article fills that gap.
- The cost of temporary accommodation is not automatically part of the claim: the policy conditions typically cover the reasonable and documented rent of temporary accommodation and the cost of moving as a separate, limited item – capped as a percentage of the sum insured, as a fixed amount or by duration.
- The key condition is uninhabitability: many policy conditions tie payment to the authority declaring the home uninhabitable, while others also accept obvious uninhabitability – the wording of your own conditions decides, so ask about it on the claims line on the very first day.
- The insurer pays only for what is in your contract: the additional rent, not the whole cost of housing, and only until the repairs are completed – without a rental agreement backed by invoices and proof of the removal and storage costs, the item is lost.
What do the policy conditions typically cover?
Hungarian home insurance conditions typically list, among the costs related to the insured event: demolition, clearing of debris and rubble, removal, design and permit costs, a one-off clean after the repairs – and the rent of temporary accommodation if the insured property has become uninhabitable because of the insured event. As a K&H information page puts it: “If the competent authority declares the building uninhabitable, from moving out until it becomes habitable again, the insurer reimburses, in addition to the sum insured, the reasonable and documented additional rent of temporary accommodation of the same standard.” A CIG Pannónia condition likewise ties the rent of temporary accommodation and the cost of moving to the authority's declaration of uninhabitability, within a specified limit, and separately names the costs of an evacuation ordered because of a flood or flood risk.
Three words recur in every set of conditions: reasonable, documented, additional. Reasonable: a home of the same standard, not larger or more expensive than the damaged one. Documented: a rental agreement and an invoice or receipt, the removal company's invoice, a storage contract. Additional: if you continue to pay the mortgage or the service charge on your own home, the full amount of the rent may count as additional; if no costs arise on your own property, some conditions pay the difference. The cover applies after fire, explosion, escape of water and the other insured events – if the damage itself is not an insured event, neither are the ancillary costs. The articles on fire and natural-peril cover and on the first week after water damage are the starting point.
When is a home “uninhabitable”?
This is the most common point of dispute in this cover. Many policy conditions tie payment to the authority declaring the home uninhabitable – in that case you need a certificate from the competent authority (typically the building authority or the government office); one Allianz condition explicitly lists, among the documents that may be requested for a claim, “the certificate of the competent authority/government office on declaring the property uninhabitable, and proof of the rent of the temporary accommodation”. Other conditions accept, besides an official decision, “obvious uninhabitability” – when it is clear at the inspection that there is no electricity, water, heating or usable room. The difference is practical: in the first case you have to apply to the authority, and until you have the document, there is no payment; in the second case the insurer's loss adjuster records the uninhabitability. A home that is unpleasant but habitable – a smell of dust, the floor opened up in one room, the noise of dehumidifiers – is typically not uninhabitable, and no rent is payable for it.
Limits and duration
In Hungarian policy conditions the cover for temporary accommodation is limited in every case; only the form of the limit differs: some contracts give a few per cent of the sum insured, others a fixed amount per claim, still others a period – for example a few months at most – or a combination of these. Some older conditions limited ancillary costs in days and by a fixed amount; today's conditions vary, so you need to look for the ancillary-costs line on your own policy or in the “insurer's benefits” chapter of the conditions. The limit runs until the repairs are completed: if rebuilding drags on – in the course of the loss assessment and settlement, the inspection, the calculation and the building work all take time –, the limit may run out before you move back in. This is not ill will on the insurer's part but the content of the contract; all the more reason to sign the rental agreement from the outset with the expected repair time and the limit in mind.
Storage, removal, loss of rent
In most conditions the cost of moving out goes hand in hand with the rent; furniture storage, however, is not covered everywhere: some conditions pay for removing and storing salvageable contents as part of mitigating the loss – under Section 6:463 of the Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk.), the necessary costs of mitigation are borne by the insurer within the limits of the sum insured even if the mitigation was unsuccessful –, others pay for it as a separate item with a limit, and in some it does not appear at all. For landlords, loss of rent is a separate question: some conditions pay the rent lost on a let flat because of the damage under the heading “loss of rent”, typically also with a limit; the article for landlords discusses this cover separately. Under some contracts the assistance service can also arrange emergency accommodation on the night of the incident – but that is a different item, and it has to be requested on the claims line.
The process from the day of the damage
On the first day, when you report the claim, ask on the claims line: does the contract include temporary accommodation, what is the condition – an official certificate or an inspection –, how high is the limit and for how long does it apply? If an official certificate is needed, apply for it in the first few days; the insurer does not arrange this for you. Sign a written rental agreement and ask for an invoice or receipt for every month; weeks spent with relatives are typically not reimbursed, because there is no documented cost. Ask for invoices for the removal and the storage, and record the list of salvageable contents with photos – this is part of mitigating the loss, not an eccentric demand. Submit the ancillary-cost claim together with the rest of the claim, and respond promptly to any request for missing documents: the guide to requests for missing documents shows how. If the insurer disputes the uninhabitability, your own expert report and the official certificate are the two arguments; the route for a dispute is the complaints procedure, then the Financial Arbitration Board (PBT) or the court. I do not represent you in a claim, but if it gets stuck, I help where I can.
What should you do now?
Look in your conditions for the chapter on “costs related to the insured event” or “ancillary costs”: is the rent of temporary accommodation included, what is the condition and what is the limit? If the limit is low given the size of your family or the expected repair time, a higher limit or additional cover can be requested at the renewal date. And keep your own documents and the inventory to hand – it is hard to dig out paperwork from an uninhabitable home after the event.
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Sources
- K&H Biztosító: 8 unusual things home insurance may cover – additional rent of temporary accommodation
- CIG Pannónia LakóTárs home insurance conditions (1 March 2025) – rent of temporary accommodation, moving
- Allianz Otthonom home insurance general terms and conditions (ÁSZF, AHE-12710-17) – costs related to the insured event, documents that may be requested for a claim
- Generali Házőrző conditions – reimbursement of rent, loss of rent (VII.3.)
- Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk.) Section 6:463 – duty to prevent and mitigate loss, costs of mitigation
- Financial Arbitration Board (PBT, MNB)
