Insurance Reimbursement for Frozen Pipe

[Jim Panek]

Hello,

I own an upper/lower duplex in Milwaukee, WI. I live (well lived) in the lower unit, and rented out the upper unit. BecauseI lived in the home I had a homeowners insurance policy (not a landlord policy). On Christmas a pipe upstairs froze causing water damage to the upper unit floors, and damage to much of the lower unit (that I lived in) ceilings, walls, floors, etc. 

Where it gets tricky. I planned on moving out of the lower unit 02/15 (and did so) and planned on renting out that lower unit like the day I moved out. I did not have a lease or anything set in place before the pipe burst on Christmas. I moved to North Carolina on 2/15. The water mitigation team came out immediately after the pipe burst and did there thing, then the reconstruction team got their estimate out to my All State Insurance on 01/16/2023. I was prepared to just bite a month or two of lost revenue on it, but it is now 03/09/2023 and insurance has STILL NOT EVEN approved the estimate (after a ton of follow ups by me and the reconstruction team). So I am now losing and will continue to lose multiple months of rental income on this (reconstruction may take several months). I seem to be in a hard place though because it's a homeowners insurance policy and they claim to not be paying for lost revenue even though I am moved out and it's sitting vacant.

Can anyone share some advice on: Is there any way insurance should be paying for the lost rental income? Can the fact that they have been extremely slow in the process be used? I'd like to claim I still live there in order to get some temporary housing (which I would actually use since I travel back and forth to there), is this a viable option?

Thank so much in advance for any insight!