ALE clocks
After a serious loss, Coverage D — loss of use — pays the extra cost of living elsewhere: hotel, rent, meals above normal. People track it as money. Fewer track it as time: in at least one state the depreciation clock itself is keyed to when ALE ends. This guide covers both: how ALE pays, and the clocks it starts.
Coverage D (Loss of Use) pays the increase in living expense while the home is unfit to live in from a covered loss: the hotel or rental, the restaurant meals above your normal food spend, extra mileage, laundry, pet boarding. Settlements commonly cap it at 20–30% of the dwelling limit and a duration (12–24 months is the common band; California sets a 24-month floor by statute, Ins. Code § 2060). Two habits decide whether ALE pays fully: keep every receipt (the coverage reimburses documented expense, not estimated hardship), and get extensions agreed in writing before the current period lapses.
Colorado wrote the connection into law: for a total loss, the owner has at least 365 days after the ALE period expires to replace the property and recover the depreciation (C.R.S. § 10-4-110.8), with a matching 365 days to deliver the contents inventory — and declared-wildfire extensions on top. The principle generalizes even where the statute doesn't: carriers set contents and completion clocks that interact with how long you're displaced. Track three dates from day one: when ALE started, when it ends (per the current agreement — get changes in writing), and every deadline keyed to either. The checker takes an ALE end date and does the Colorado arithmetic for you.
On a total loss, the same holdback logic applies to your belongings: the contents payment often withholds depreciation until items are replaced and receipts submitted — Colorado's 365-day inventory window exists because listing a houseful of property from memory takes time. Start the inventory in the first week, room by room, from photos and purchase records; it is also the document your depreciation recovery will be paid against.
Run your own numbers. The free checker takes your state, your dates, and the figures on the insurer's estimate — and returns the dollars still held back, your real deadline, and the next document to send. Run the checker →
The pages above are the map. The kit is the paperwork: the proof packet that releases the money, the letters that protect the clocks, and the complaint pack for when the stall continues.
One payment, yours to keep. We never ask you to upload your policy — you file everything yourself. See everything inside the kit →