Insurance and displaced family stays in Nottingham
Insurance accommodation in Nottingham
Whole homes in Nottingham for families out of their house after a fire, a flood or an escape of water. Pets considered, schools taken into account, and the insurer invoiced directly.
Or call reservations on 0333 880 7213
The short answer
Alternative accommodation in Nottingham while your home is unusable.
If a fire, a flood or an escape of water has made your house unliveable, your policy almost certainly pays for somewhere else while it is repaired. That is called alternative accommodation, and it is what we provide in Nottingham: a whole furnished house or apartment, for as long as the works take, with the bills included and the invoice going to the insurer or the loss adjuster rather than to you. We deal with adjusters regularly and we know what they need in writing. Nottingham's centre is compact enough that a central flat reaches almost everything on foot or one tram.
Called a few different things
You will see this called several things and they all mean the same. Insurance accommodation Nottingham, alternative accommodation, displaced family accommodation, emergency accommodation, temporary accommodation after a flood or fire, loss of use accommodation, or simply what the policy calls alternative accommodation. If a loss adjuster has asked you to find somewhere, this is the page.
What the first week is actually like
Two hotel rooms, a microwave and the school run, for four months.
That is what usually happens first, and it is nobody's fault: the insurer needs somewhere immediately and a hotel is what is available at nine at night. It stops working within about a fortnight. A family needs a kitchen, separate bedrooms, somewhere to put the things that were salvaged and a school run that has not doubled. It suits you if:
Where you would be
Staying near your own life in Nottingham.
Staying inside the school run
Most families want to avoid changing schools in the middle of a claim. Nottingham makes that slightly awkward, because the city council and the surrounding boroughs are separate admissions authorities. West Bridgford sits in Rushcliffe and Beeston in Broxtowe, even though both feel like Nottingham. If you are only moving a short distance, it is worth checking which side of that line you land on.
The residential areas, honestly
West Bridgford is south of the Trent, flat, largely Victorian and Edwardian terraces, with the shops along Central Avenue. Beeston is its western equivalent and has the tram. Sherwood and Mapperley are north and uphill, quieter and usually better value, with Mapperley the further out of the two. All of them are family areas. They feel quite different to live in.
Parking while you are displaced
Off street parking is not a given on any of those streets. Much of West Bridgford and Beeston is terraced with residents' permit schemes, and around Trent Bridge and the City Ground there are match day restrictions that catch people out several times a season. Running two cars while the house is dried out is a real constraint on which streets work.
A claim takes longer than quoted
Escape of water and fire claims rarely hold to the first estimate. Drying, strip out, a schedule of works and then the repair itself usually add up to months rather than weeks, and the dates move. It is better to plan for a stay you can extend than to move the family twice. Storage, a spare room for what you salvaged and somewhere for the dog all count.
Claims cluster in the cold
Escape of water is largely a winter problem. A hard frost in January produces burst pipes across the city inside the same fortnight, which means a lot of families are looking at once and the trades are stretched thin. If your claim starts in that window, expect the schedule to slip and expect to be told that it will not.
Keeping the weekends normal
The part that wears children down is losing the ordinary things. Bridgford Park and the Hook by the river are on the south side, Colwick Country Park is east, and Rushcliffe Country Park sits out at Ruddington. Staying within reach of whichever one the family already uses does more for morale than an extra room, and it keeps a weekend looking like a weekend.
Too small, because it is temporary
Four months in a place chosen for eight weeks is the common regret. A long claim means boxes, salvaged furniture, school bags and somewhere to take a call in the middle of the day. Families who take the smaller option to keep things simple often end up moving twice, which costs everyone more than the spare room would have.
Access to the damaged house
You will be back at the old house more often than you expect, for the loss adjuster, the driers, the strip out and then the trades. Most of Nottingham's terraced streets have no drive, so skips and contractor vans need a council permit and somewhere legal to stand. Being a short drive away rather than across the county keeps that from becoming a job in itself.
Booking direct
The same property, without the platform's cut.
Our properties are on Airbnb and Booking.com as well, and you are welcome to book there. Booking direct also avoids the guest service fee the big platforms add on top, which on a longer Nottingham stay is not a small number. Booking with us direct also means you are talking to the people who actually run the property rather than a message thread inside an app, which matters when you need an early check-in or an extra week.
Message reservations rather than booking online, and tell us the postcode you have come out of and which school or work you need to stay near. We will tell you honestly what we have close to it and what we do not, and we will deal with the adjuster directly from there.
In every property
What is actually there when you arrive.
Nottingham questions
What people ask about staying in Nottingham.
Which part of Nottingham should I be in?
Most of what you would need day to day sits in the city centre, the Lace Market, West Bridgford and Beeston. Tell us where you need to be each morning rather than which postcode you fancy, and we will be honest about what is close to it and what only looks close.
Can I park in Nottingham?
City centre parking is paid and the residential streets close in are permit zones. The tram and the park and ride sites take most of the pain out of it if you are commuting to the edge of the city, and are worth using rather than driving into the middle twice a day.
How easy is it to get around Nottingham without a car?
The tram runs from the station through the centre to Hucknall and Clifton, and London is an hour and three quarters.
What is there to do in Nottingham on a day off?
The Castle, Wollaton, the Lace Market and the arena are all central, Trent Bridge and the two football grounds sit together across the river, and Sherwood and the Peak District are inside an hour. For a compact city there is more within reach than there appears to be.
Questions we get asked
What families and adjusters ask us.
Will the insurer pay you directly?
In almost every case, yes. We invoice the insurer or the loss adjuster on their terms, with the dates, the address and the claim reference, so you are not putting months of accommodation on a credit card and waiting to be reimbursed. Give us the adjuster's details and we will take it from there.
How long can we stay?
As long as the works take. Claims like this commonly run three to nine months and we would rather book you for the realistic length than move you twice. If the schedule slips, which it usually does, extending is a message.
Can we bring the dog?
Some properties take pets and some do not, so ask early rather than at the end. It is one of the most common reasons a hotel stops working for a family and one of the easiest things for us to solve if we know at the start.
We need to stay in the same school catchment.
Tell us the school and the postcode rather than the city. That is the constraint that actually decides this, and we would rather say we have nothing close enough than put you somewhere that adds forty minutes to every morning.
Check availability
Tell us the postcode you have come out of.
Message reservations with the postcode, how many of you there are and whether there is a pet, and we will tell you straight away what we have near you.
Reservations, seven days a week, on 0333 880 7213