Farmers Loss of Use Coverage: The Clock on Your Declarations, and Where an RV Fits

    By Mike Wojciak, founder, Agile RV Housing

    Published September 16, 2026. Last updated September 16, 2026.

    On a Farmers Smart Plan homeowners policy this is Coverage D, Loss of Use. It reimburses the actual, reasonable and necessary increase in living expense when covered damage makes your home uninhabitable. The time limit is not written into the form. It is printed on your declarations, which makes reading them the first move.

    Agile RV Housing is an independent temporary housing provider. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by Farmers, and coverage decisions on any claim are made by the policyholder's adjuster.

    What does Farmers loss of use coverage pay for?

    It reimburses the increase your displacement creates, not your whole cost of living, and it does so under three headings that share one limit per loss event: Additional Living Expense, Loss of Rents, and Prohibited Use. Housing sits under the first one, and reimbursement runs on receipts.

    The operative language, from the Farmers Smart Plan Home Policy, Nevada edition 56-5640, filed as a specimen with the Nevada Division of Insurance:

    If covered accidental, direct, distinct and demonstrable, physical loss or damage to the dwelling makes that part of the dwelling where you reside uninhabitable by you, we will reimburse you for the actual, reasonable and necessary increase in living expense incurred by you.

    Notice the verb, reimburse. This coverage pays you back for money already spent, and the form backs that up twice: it limits payment to expenses actually incurred, and it says that upon request you must provide receipts. Save every receipt from the first night away from the house.

    Two more sentences from the same section deserve a highlight. Additional living expense that raises your standard of living will not be reimbursed, and the expense is paid for only one household no matter how many named insureds the policy lists.

    The section's other two parts cover different problems. Loss of Rents pays your actual lost rent, for no more than 12 months, when a rented part of the premises becomes unfit to live in, and it excludes lease cancellations. Prohibited Use pays when a civil authority bars you from an undamaged home because of covered damage nearby.

    How long does Farmers pay additional living expenses?

    For the shortest time reasonably needed to repair the damage or permanently relocate, and never longer than the period shown on your declarations. Most carriers print the month cap in the policy form itself. Farmers prints it on the declarations page, so two Farmers households can carry different clocks.

    The form's exact phrase is "but in no event for more than the time period shown in the Declarations." That single clause is why generic advice about Farmers time limits is worth very little. Your neighbor's Smart Plan policy can carry a different period than yours. The number that matters is on your own paperwork, usually one line below the Loss of Use dollar limit.

    The form also confirms the periods are not limited by cancellation, renewal, or non-renewal of the policy, so a mid-claim renewal date does not shorten anything.

    Statutory floors underneath the policy

    State law can override whatever the declarations say, in one direction only: upward. California is the big one. After a declared state of emergency, Insurance Code section 2060(b)(1) guarantees at least 24 months of additional living expense coverage from the date of loss, extendable by up to 12 more months, for a total of 36, when good faith delays like permit queues, materials shortages, or contractor availability drag the rebuild out. The dollar limit stays subject to the policy, and section 2060(b)(2) allows the insurer to substitute a reasonable alternative remedy. None of it applies without an emergency declared under Government Code section 8558.

    Louisiana requires a three month advance of increased living expenses on a covered total loss when the policyholder asks. Colorado sets a floor of 12 months with no dollar or percentage cap on replacement-cost policies and requires a 24 month option. Texas approves the optional HO-115 and HO-116 endorsements for evacuations and utility outages. We found no equivalent minimum in Florida, North Carolina, or Ohio.

    How is the dollar limit set on a Farmers policy?

    The Loss of Use line on your declarations is a single stated limit, and the form applies it to Additional Living Expense, Loss of Rents, and Prohibited Use together, per loss event. Both numbers that govern your claim, the dollar ceiling and the time ceiling, live on that page.

    The form's preamble reads: "The stated limit for Loss of Use is the total limit for all Additional Living Expense, Loss of Rents and Prohibited Use coverages for any one loss event." One pot, three spouts.

    This is the only carrier page we publish where the declarations answer two questions instead of one. Before choosing housing on a Farmers claim, you need the dollar figure and the time period, and both come off the same page. If either line is unclear, have your agent walk you through it.

    How insurers commonly size these limits across the industry is in our additional living expense coverage guide.

    Will Farmers approve an RV on my property?

    Often, and the form leaves room for it. Nothing in the Smart Plan policy names hotels, rentals, or any other housing category. The coverage pays whatever increase in living expense is actual, reasonable, and necessary to keep the household it covers living the way it did before the loss.

    The homeowner usually has to raise it. Placement on your own property is not the default suggestion on most claims, and it becomes an option the moment someone asks for it in writing.

    Wording that works:

    The house is uninhabitable and our preference is to stay on the property while it is repaired. Will you consider a furnished RV placed here as our additional living expense housing? We can have a written estimate to you right away.

    From our placement records, not from Farmers: an approval has never happened for us without a written estimate in the adjuster's hands, and we produce that document ourselves. One phone call between us and the adjuster typically settles it, with email doing the job on some files. Payment then follows whichever route the adjuster runs, to us directly, through a national temporary housing agency, or to the homeowner who pays us.

    Farmers' receipt requirement is one more argument for direct vendor billing. When the carrier is invoiced for the housing itself, the receipt trail for your biggest displacement expense builds itself.

    Whether the unit can sit on your land at all is a zoning matter. The rules run mostly on incorporated city versus unincorporated county, and our guide to living in an RV on your property during a rebuild covers how to check.

    Check the lot before the claim conversation

    Zoning decides whether a unit can be placed before any adjuster weighs in. Give us the address and we will research what your jurisdiction allows.

    What slows a Farmers loss of use claim down?

    Not knowing the time period on your own declarations. The form does not carry the clock. Your declarations do. Housing decisions made before reading that line are guesses.

    Spending without receipts. The form requires receipts on request and pays only incurred expenses. A missing receipt is a reimbursement that may never come.

    Assuming two households get two benefits. The form pays additional living expense for one household, regardless of how many named insureds are on the policy.

    Counting on Prohibited Use during an outage. An area-wide utility outage by itself does not trigger it, and neither does threatened damage. It takes covered physical damage to a nearby premises and a civil authority order.

    One limit, one loss event, three coverages. Additional Living Expense, Loss of Rents, and Prohibited Use all pull from the same stated limit.

    Weeks of hotel spending before the plan. Early hotel nights are the priciest of the claim and they subtract from the same pot as everything after.

    A number over the phone instead of paper. Adjusters act on written estimates. The file waits until one arrives.

    How does an RV on your property compare to a hotel on a Farmers claim?

    Price the hotel option the way your family would actually book it, with as many rooms as it takes. Against that real number, one RV on your own lot draws down a Loss of Use limit substantially more slowly each month, while your kids keep their school and the dog keeps its yard.

    A five person household books two rooms, and two rooms at the rates adjusters approve top $140 a night before anyone eats out, washes clothes, or boards an animal. One unit runs $120 to $140 a night with tax included and holds the whole household.

    Add what hotels cannot avoid generating: restaurant meals every day, laundromat runs, kennel fees, extra fuel. On a Farmers policy every one of those receipts drains the same stated limit the housing does.

    Region by region numbers for every option, with the worked example, are in what temporary housing actually costs, by region.

    Delivery and setup get quoted for the specific property, since no two lots need the same work. Approval to move-in usually takes about four days, with the electrical contractor's calendar setting the pace.

    How does billing work with Farmers?

    Around whichever system the file runs on. Direct payment from the adjuster after the written estimate is the most common route. Files managed by a national temporary housing agency get billed through that agency instead, and now and then the homeowner is reimbursed and pays us.

    ALE Solutions, Alacrity, Sedgwick, CRS, and National Corporate Housing are all systems we bill through when one of them holds the file. The agency layer gives carriers one contact across thousands of claims.

    Every invoice itemizes winterization, electric, water, and sewer separately. Itemization is what turns an adjuster's reasonableness review into a five minute yes.

    Farmers loss of use facts at a glance

    Item What the policy says Source Date checked
    Coverage section name Coverage D (Loss of Use) Farmers Smart Plan Home Policy Nevada, 56-5640 1st Edition 6-15 2026-09-16
    Form family and edition Proprietary Farmers. Smart Plan Home Policy, Nevada specimen, 56-5640 1st Edition 6-15. Includes ISO material with permission 56-5640 2026-09-16
    Additional living expense time limit Shortest time reasonably needed to repair or replace the damage or permanently relocate, but in no event more than the time period shown in the Declarations 56-5640, Coverage D, item 1 2026-09-16
    Standard of living rule Additional living expense that raises your standard of living will not be reimbursed 56-5640, Coverage D, item 1 2026-09-16
    Receipts Upon request, you must provide receipts for expenses incurred 56-5640, Coverage D, item 1 2026-09-16
    Household rule Additional living expense is paid for only one household, regardless of the number of named insureds 56-5640, Coverage D, item 1 2026-09-16
    Loss of rents limit Shortest time reasonably needed to repair or replace the damaged property, but no more than 12 months. Lease cancellation not covered 56-5640, Coverage D, item 2 2026-09-16
    Civil authority period No more than two weeks, called Prohibited Use. Does not apply to threatened damage or an area-wide utility outage alone 56-5640, Coverage D, item 3 2026-09-16
    Dollar limit location Declarations page. The stated limit is the total for Additional Living Expense, Loss of Rents, and Prohibited Use in any one loss event 56-5640, Coverage D preamble 2026-09-16
    Deductible No deductible applies to the three Loss of Use coverages 56-5640, Coverage D 2026-09-16
    California statutory extension At least 24 months after a declared state of emergency, plus up to 12 more for good-faith delays, subject to other policy provisions Cal. Ins. Code 2060(b)(1), via CDI 2026 Annual Notice 2026-09-16

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    Questions homeowners with Farmers claims ask

    How long does Farmers pay for temporary housing?

    For the shortest time reasonably needed to repair, replace, or permanently relocate, up to the time period printed on your declarations page. The Smart Plan form itself sets no universal month cap, so the declarations entry is the number to find before you choose housing.

    Does Farmers pay for an RV during home repairs?

    It can. The policy names no housing types, only a test: the actual, reasonable and necessary increase in living expense needed to keep your household at the standard of living it had at the time of the loss. An RV placed on your own property can pass that test, with your adjuster deciding.

    What is Coverage D on a Farmers policy?

    Loss of Use. On the Smart Plan Home form it holds Additional Living Expense, Loss of Rents, and Prohibited Use, and the stated limit on your declarations is the total for all three in any one loss event.

    Does Farmers require receipts for additional living expenses?

    The form says reimbursement is for incurred expenses and that you must provide receipts on request. Keep every one from the first night out of the house, because the coverage reimburses documented spending rather than estimates.

    Does Farmers pay temporary housing during a neighborhood evacuation?

    Under Prohibited Use, for up to two weeks, when a civil authority bars you from your home because of physical damage to a nearby property that this policy would have covered. It does not apply to threatened damage or to an area-wide utility outage on its own.

    Will Farmers pay Agile RV Housing directly?

    In most placements the adjuster approves a written estimate and payment comes to us. Some claims run through a national temporary housing agency and we bill inside its system. Whichever route the file takes, the cost of the placement stays the same.

    Sources

    Policy form editions vary by state and are revised over time. The specimen above is the edition we pulled and read on the date shown. Your own declarations page and the form issued in your state control your claim. Nothing here is legal advice or a coverage determination.

    Mike Wojciak, founder, Agile RV Housing. Ten years in the RV rental industry and more than 100 long-term placements over the last three years.

    Have an open Farmers claim?

    Read your declarations, then call us. The written estimate and the placement are our job from there.