This question came to us in two parts:
Part 1: I just received a message from our Texas group that a lady in Texas whose power was out (And there was literally no place else to go) had run out of dry firewood and so used the easiest pieces of wood to remove that would fit into the fireplace. She burned her cabinet doors. Would there perhaps be coverage under "Additional Living Expenses"? If so, would the damage to the kitchen be limited to the ALE limit?
Part 2: The lady's home was completely flooded from burst water pipes. So, there is a covered loss that would require additional living expenses to be paid. However, all of the hotels were either also without power or full.
Her only reasonable choice was to stay home and burn what she could in her fireplace. The burning helped to keep her warm (Stay in the lifestyle to which she is accustomed, ie. not frozen) and would also help dry out a portion of her home. In fact, she dried many items of personal property near the fireplace. I would think that this could also be considered "mitigation" under Coverage A and Coverage C.
In the scenario described above, would there be any coverage for the cost to replace the cabinet doors, whether as mitigation or an Additional Living Expense?
Hawaii Subscriber
First, it doesn't fit under ALE, as she did not incur additional expense, she just destroyed her own property under dire conditions. As far as mitigation goes, the policy pays for reasonable repairs to protect covered property, which doesn't fit as she was making no repairs, and the policy also requires the insured to protect property from further damage after a loss. It's hard to make the case that the destroyed cabinet doors are collateral damage in attempts to mitigate the loss.
Were it up to me I might let it pass for any insured who did such a thing out of dire extenuating circumstances; however I can't justify it by policy language.
Reasonable Repairs a. We will pay the reasonable cost incurred by you for the necessary measures taken solely to protect covered property that is damaged by a Peril Insured Against from further damage. b. If the measures taken involve repair to other damaged property, we will only pay if that property is covered under this policy and the damage is caused by a Peril Insured Against.