Estimating and reserves
Additional Living Expense Worksheet Template & Example
Last updated 2026-08-03
The word doing the work is additional. Coverage of this kind responds to the increase in what a household spends, not to what it spends, and every dispute about an ALE file traces back to that distinction being applied loosely at the start and then defended rigidly at the end. A hotel bill is not an additional living expense. A hotel bill less what the household was already spending to be housed is closer, and the worksheet exists to show that subtraction in public.
Which means the baseline is half the document. Establishing what the household normally spent on food, fuel and utilities before the loss is awkward, it takes evidence the insured may not have, and it is the step most worksheets skip — they list receipts and total them. A file built that way pays too much early and then reverses, which is the worst available sequence for everyone in it.
The example below is worked against a fictional displacement of nineteen days, with a running total, one line held pending receipts, and a contested grocery baseline that is not resolved. The final section shows the other case entirely: a companion file where the dwelling stayed habitable, no additional living expense is claimed, and what matters is that the reasoning was recorded rather than the question simply never appearing.
Jurisdiction
Written primarily against US first-party property practice. Claim handling is regulated state by state — acknowledgment and response deadlines, prompt-payment requirements, adjuster licensing and unfair claims practices standards all differ — and the policy actually issued governs the claim. Where a page cites a statute, model act or regulation, confirm what applies in the state where the loss occurred. Outside the US, treat the structure as transferable and the legal references as not.
Additional Living Expense Worksheet template
Free Word download, no email required. Or open it in Professional Drafter — it lands in your template library, ready to draft against.
When to use this document
- Any loss where the insured is displaced, or where use of part of the dwelling is lost in a way that increases what the household spends.
- Where displacement is short but the household composition makes the arithmetic non-obvious — pets, a home-based occupation, school runs, a member with dietary or access needs.
- Where no additional living expense is being paid, and the file needs the negative determination and its reasoning on the record rather than as an absence.
Worked example
Fictional scenario: companion file PC-2026-11603, insured M. Ferreira, 42 Corliss Street, adjuster R. Calloway and examiner C. Mendez — the same adjusting pair as the Harbour Lane matter. A second-floor washing machine supply line failed on 9 August 2026 and brought down the kitchen ceiling; the household of three was out for nineteen days. One line is held pending receipts and the grocery baseline is contested and unresolved. The final section records the opposite case on the Harbour Lane file, PC-2026-11482, where the dwelling stayed habitable and nothing is payable.
Claim identification and displacement facts
Claim PC-2026-11603. Insured M. Ferreira, 42 Corliss Street. Date of loss 9 August 2026, approximately 06:40. Cause: braided supply line to the second-floor laundry, failed at the valve end; the kitchen ceiling below came down within the hour.
Dwelling unfit for use from 9 August. The determination is mine, made on site at 11:20 on 9 August: the kitchen ceiling was down over the range and sink, the kitchen was the only cooking facility, and the mitigation contractor's containment sealed the ground-floor circulation route to the sole ground-floor bathroom. The insured vacated the same afternoon, so there is no gap between unfitness and vacation on this file.
Household: M. Ferreira, spouse, one child aged 9. One dog. Temporary accommodation: Marbury Inn, 6.3 miles from the risk, from 9 August. Returned home 28 August 2026 — nineteen nights.
Expected duration at the outset was fourteen days, based on the contractor's ceiling program. It ran to nineteen because the ceiling insulation was wetter than the first moisture survey showed and drying was extended. The insured was told on 18 August that the return date had moved and why.
Additional living expense coverage: 12 months, actual loss sustained. No dollar cap engaged at this scale; the period is not close to exhausted.
Basis of the calculation: normal versus incurred
Baseline established 12 August 2026 from documents supplied by the insured.
Food. Two months of bank and card statements, June and July 2026, showing grocery and household spend. Derived normal figure: $28.00 per day for the household. THIS IS CONTESTED — see below and see the meals section.
Housing. The mortgage on 42 Corliss Street continues through the displacement and is not affected by it. It is not treated as an offset against the hotel on this file; the hotel is treated as an additional cost in full. That is a treatment decision and it is stated here rather than left to be inferred.
Utilities. Twelve months of supply history from the two utility accounts, giving a normal August-period daily cost at the loss address. Used to compute the avoided-cost offset below.
Laundry. Normal cost nil. The household has an in-home washer and dryer, which is the very appliance circuit that failed and which was out of service throughout.
Pet care. Normal cost nil. The dog is normally kept at home.
Fuel and mileage. Pre-loss school and work journeys measured from the risk address, given below.
The weakness in this baseline is the food figure. Two months of statements is thin, one of those months included a two-week period when the insured says the family was away, and the statements do not separate groceries from other supermarket purchases. The insured says the true normal figure is closer to $38 per day. I have worked the sheet at $28 and flagged the difference rather than splitting it, because a split with no basis is harder to defend than either number.
Temporary housing
Marbury Inn, 6.3 miles from the risk address. Standard: one two-queen room with a microwave and a small refrigerator, no cooktop. Rate $148.00 per night inclusive of tax, pet fee waived on production of the claim reference.
19 nights at $148.00 = $2,812.00.
Standard assessment: the pre-loss dwelling is a three-bedroom, single-family house. A single hotel room is below that standard rather than above it, and I looked at two short-term rental options at $2,650 and $3,180 for the expected fourteen-day period before the insured booked. The Inn was the cheaper of the practical options at the time of booking and was available same-day, which mattered on 9 August. Recorded because the comparison is the answer to the question a reviewer asks about accommodation standard, and it is much easier to write on the day than to reconstruct in October.
No deposit was taken and there is no lease commitment. Nothing outlives the displacement in this category.
Housing subtotal: $2,812.00.
Food and meals
The room has a microwave and refrigerator but no cooktop, so the household could store and reheat but not cook. That places the increment between a full-kitchen displacement and a no-facilities one, and it is why the incurred figure below is lower than a straight restaurant assumption would give.
Incurred food cost, 9 to 28 August, receipts 11 to 63 in the ALE receipt file: $1,406.00. This is a mix of prepared supermarket food, three grocery runs for breakfast and reheatable items, and restaurant meals.
Normal food cost for the same 19 days at the baseline of $28.00 per day: $532.00.
Additional food cost: $1,406.00 less $532.00 = $874.00.
Held pending: $148.00 of the incurred figure is supported by card statement entries only, without itemized receipts, for four days between 19 and 22 August. The insured is looking for them. That $148 is included in the incurred total above but is NOT included in the payment computed below, and is shown as held in the running total section.
If the insured's contested baseline of $38.00 per day were used instead of $28.00, the normal figure for 19 days would be $722.00 and the additional food cost would fall to $684.00 — a difference of $190.00 in the carrier's favor on his own contention, which is worth noting because it tells you the dispute is about principle and record-keeping rather than about a material sum. It is still unresolved. I have asked for four further months of statements, requested 20 August, and have not received them.
Transportation and mileage
- Pre-loss daily round trip, school run plus commute, measured from 42 Corliss Street:
- 22.6 miles.
- Same journeys from the Marbury Inn:
- 34.0 miles.
- Additional distance:
- 11.4 miles per day. The Inn is 6.3 miles from the risk address and in the opposite direction to both the school and the workplace, which is why the increment is close to double the displacement distance rather than equal to it. Written down because a reviewer looking only at the two totals will otherwise reconstruct it wrongly.
Days claimed: 19. The journeys ran on weekdays and weekends alike over this period because of a holiday-club arrangement, and the insured's log supports daily travel; I have accepted it.
- Rate applied:
- $0.62 per mile, the rate stated in the ALE authorization letter issued to this insured on 12 August. The rate is the carrier's own published figure for 2026 and it is quoted here with its source because a bare rate is unauditable a year later.
11.4 miles x 19 days = 216.6 additional miles.
216.6 x $0.62 = $134.29.
No parking, tolls, transit or vehicle hire claimed.
Transportation subtotal: $134.29.
Other incremental costs
Pet boarding. The Inn accepts dogs but not unattended in the room, and both adults work off-site. Boarding at Weald Road Kennels, 19 days at $32.00 = $608.00. Normal cost nil. Receipts 64 to 66. Additional: $608.00.
Laundry. Laundromat, four visits, $64.00 total, receipts 67 to 70. Normal cost nil, since the in-home machine was out of service and is the appliance at the origin of the loss. Additional: $64.00.
Storage. None. Undamaged contents remained in the dwelling.
Childcare. The holiday-club arrangement predates the loss and is unchanged. Nil.
Utilities, both directions. The temporary accommodation's utilities are included in the room rate, so nothing is added. At the loss address, electricity and gas consumption for 9 to 28 August against the same period in the twelve-month history shows a reduction of $41.00 — the household was out, though the mitigation equipment ran on the ground floor for eleven of the nineteen days, which is why the reduction is smaller than an empty house would give. That $41.00 is taken as an OFFSET.
Nothing was claimed and disallowed in this category. The insured asked about a replacement laundry basket and two towels; I explained those are personal property rather than additional living expense and they have gone onto the contents inventory instead.
Other costs subtotal: $608.00 + $64.00 - $41.00 = $631.00.
Running total, payments and remaining limit
- Housing:
- $2,812.00
- Food, additional:
- $874.00
- Transportation:
- $134.29
- Other, net of the utility offset:
- $631.00
- TOTAL ADDITIONAL LIVING EXPENSE TO DATE:
- $4,451.29
- Less amount held pending itemized receipts (food, 19-22 August):
- $148.00
- Payable now:
- $4,303.29
Payments issued: advance of $1,500.00 on 13 August 2026, check 0891502, on the insured's request four days into the displacement. Balance now due: $2,803.29.
If the insured's contested food baseline is accepted in full, the total falls by $190.00 to $4,261.29 and the balance falls accordingly. If the four days of receipts are produced, $148.00 is released. Those two open items move in opposite directions and neither is resolved.
Period: 19 days consumed of a 12-month actual-loss-sustained provision. The household returned home on 28 August and no further displacement is anticipated, so the period is not a constraint on this file.
Next review: 5 September 2026, on the receipts and the baseline.
Deductible: this policy's $1,000 all-peril deductible was applied once on this claim, to the building payment of 26 August. Nothing is deducted from the additional living expense figures above. Recorded because a closing reconciliation that cannot see where the deductible landed is the one that applies it twice.
Determination, or the record where no ALE is payable
PC-2026-11603: additional living expense is payable, computed as above, with $148.00 held and the food baseline contested and unresolved as at 4 September 2026. The insured has been given a copy of this worksheet showing both the figure I have used and the figure he contends for.
The companion record, on the Harbour Lane file. Claim PC-2026-11482, insured D. Okonjo, 118 Harbour Lane, water loss reported 14 July 2026. What follows is the determination entered on that file on 18 July 2026 and reviewed on 30 July, reproduced here because a nil determination is the entry this template exists for as much as the arithmetic is. No additional living expense has been claimed and none is payable on the facts recorded below.
Entry of 18 July 2026. On inspection that day the damage was confined to 31 linear feet of wall in the hallway and living room, wet to 14 inches above slab, plus the utility closet. The kitchen, both bathrooms and all bedrooms were unaffected and photographed as such. Cooking, washing and sleeping facilities were all in use throughout, and the drying equipment ran in the hallway without obstructing circulation. The dwelling remained habitable, on my observation on site, and the mitigation contractor's site supervisor agreed on the same day.
The insured did not request displacement, and I asked. He was told on 18 July, in terms, that if the drying or the demolition made the dwelling unusable at any point he should call before making any arrangement, and that the coverage exists. Nothing has been claimed and nothing has been paid.
What would change it, as recorded on 18 July: opening the west wall, then programmed for 29 July, could in principle require the ground floor to be sealed, which would change the assessment.
Review entry, 30 July 2026. The west wall was opened on 29 July. Containment was local to the hallway, the kitchen and bathrooms stayed in use, and the insured did not request displacement when asked again on the day. The determination stands unchanged. Nothing has been claimed and nothing has been paid.
That is the whole entry, and it took three minutes on each of two days. It answers a question that is otherwise unanswerable in eight months, when the only honest reply to 'was ALE considered' would be that nobody can tell.
Section-by-section guide
What each section is for, what a good one contains, and where they typically go wrong.
1.Claim identification and displacement facts
Dates first, because the period drives everything downstream. When the dwelling became unfit for use, when the household actually left, where they went, who is in the household, and the expected duration with its basis. If the household left before or after the date the dwelling became unusable, say so — that gap is the most common source of a disallowed first week.
2.Basis of the calculation: normal versus incurred
State the baseline and where it came from before any category is worked. Bank statements, receipts, utility history, the insured's own account — name the source and the period it covers, and say how many months of history the baseline rests on. A baseline drawn from two months of statements is a weaker instrument than one drawn from twelve, and the worksheet should be honest about which it is rather than presenting both as 'normal'.
3.Temporary housing
Rate, nights, and the comparison that justifies the standard of accommodation. Where continuing housing costs are unaffected by the displacement — a mortgage that keeps running — say whether they were treated as a baseline offset on this file, since practice differs and an unstated choice looks like an error. Note any deposit or lease term, because those outlive the displacement and have to be reconciled at the end.
4.Food and meals
The category that generates the most friction per dollar. Incurred food cost less the normal food cost equals the additional amount; showing that subtraction on the page is what prevents the argument. Where a temporary unit has cooking facilities the increment is smaller and the worksheet should say why. Where receipts are missing for part of the period, hold that portion rather than estimating it.
5.Transportation and mileage
Additional distance only, not total distance. The arithmetic is the difference between the pre-loss journey and the journey from the temporary address, multiplied by the days it applied and the rate the file uses. State the rate and its source on the page — carriers set their own and it changes, so a rate quoted without a source is unauditable a year later.
6.Other incremental costs
Pet boarding, laundry where the temporary accommodation has no machine, storage, additional childcare, utility differences in both directions. Utilities are the category most often got wrong in the insured's favor and then clawed back: if the damaged dwelling's utilities dropped while the family was out, that reduction belongs in the arithmetic. Record it at the time rather than discovering it at closing.
7.Running total, payments and remaining limit
A cumulative figure against the limit and against any period stated in the policy, updated every time the worksheet is touched. Advances already issued are deducted here so the closing reconciliation is arithmetic rather than archaeology. Where the coverage is time-limited, track the period as carefully as the money — insureds are far more often surprised by the clock than by the cap.
8.Determination, or the record where no ALE is payable
Every file needs this section, including — especially — the files where the answer is nil. A claim with no additional living expense and no explanation looks identical, on review, to a claim where nobody asked. Record who assessed habitability, on what observation, whether the insured requested displacement, and what the insured was told. Three sentences at the time replace an unanswerable question later.
Common mistakes
The failure modes that show up most often when this document is reviewed later.
Totalling incurred expenses without subtracting the normal ones.
It overpays early and forces a reversal later, which is the worst possible order. Insureds accept a low first figure explained clearly far better than they accept a high one withdrawn.
Never establishing the baseline, then arguing about it at closing.
By then the insured has spent against an implied allowance and the disagreement is about money already gone. The baseline is cheap to establish in week one and expensive to establish in month three.
Paying mileage on the whole journey rather than the additional distance.
The coverage responds to the increase. Paying total distance is not generosity, it is an error that has to be unwound, and it teaches the household an arithmetic the rest of the file will contradict.
Ignoring costs avoided at the damaged dwelling.
Utilities that dropped while the family was out are part of the same subtraction. Catching it at closing looks like a clawback; recording it monthly is just the calculation.
Tracking the money but not the clock.
Where the coverage is limited by period rather than by amount, the period is the binding constraint and it is the one insureds are least often told about. A worksheet that shows dollars and no days lets a household run into a wall nobody warned them about.
Closing a habitable-dwelling file with no ALE entry at all.
An absence is indistinguishable from an oversight. Three sentences recording the habitability observation, whether displacement was requested, and what the insured was told is the difference between a decision and a gap.
Questions
- What counts as additional rather than ordinary?
- The increase over what the household was already spending. Hotel less the housing cost the displacement actually removed, restaurant food less the normal food spend, extra mileage rather than all mileage. The template's whole structure is that subtraction, and the categories where the normal figure is genuinely nil — laundry when the home machine is out of service, boarding a dog that normally sleeps at home — should be shown as nil rather than left blank, so a reader can see it was considered.
- Does the mortgage come off the hotel bill?
- Practice differs and the policy wording governs. What matters for the worksheet is that the file states which treatment it used and does so before the first payment, because the choice is invisible in a total and obvious in a comparison. The example above says in as many words that the continuing mortgage was not offset on that file.
- How much documentation should the insured be asked for?
- Enough to support the figures, requested once and in a single list rather than in a trickle. Where receipts are missing for part of a period, hold that portion and say what would release it — the example holds $148 for four days supported only by card statements. Requests that arrive one at a time over three weeks are the most common complaint about ALE handling, and they are entirely within the adjuster's control.
- Why does a file with no additional living expense need a worksheet at all?
- It does not need the arithmetic; it needs the determination. Model 910 §6 describes a claim file as one maintained so that pertinent events and their dates can be reconstructed from it. A nil ALE with a recorded habitability observation, a note of whether displacement was requested, and what the insured was told satisfies that. A nil ALE with nothing at all does not, and it reads on review exactly like a question nobody asked.
The blank template
Exactly what is in the Word download, so you can see the structure before deciding whether you want it.
Claim identification and displacement facts
Basis of the calculation: normal versus incurred
Temporary housing
Food and meals
Transportation and mileage
Other incremental costs
- Pet boarding or additional pet care
- Laundry where the temporary unit has no facilities
- Storage of undamaged property
- Utilities at the temporary address, less utilities avoided at the loss address
- Anything claimed and disallowed, with the reason written
Running total, payments and remaining limit
Determination, or the record where no ALE is payable
Download this template
Free Word download, no email required. Or open it in Professional Drafter — it lands in your template library, ready to draft against.
Sources
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This page is a documentation aid, not legal advice and not a coverage opinion. Claim-handling requirements vary by state and by policy wording, and a template cannot tell you what your file requires. The worked example describes a fictional loss.