Basically, you don't have anything to claim as far as loss of rent goes. You can not deduct from your income, that income which you never received and paid taxes on in the first place.
My condo was hit by a hurricane. I was not able to use it due to the disaster & had to rent another place.
Don't know if you mean that you personally could not use it, or you could not rent it out. But either way there's nothing to claim just because you couldn't use it or rent it out.
My insurance did not cover the total cost.
Did you actually use the insurance money to fix the damage? Assuming the property is classified as residential rental real estate the entire year, the insurance money gets included as rental income. Then whatever you spent to fix the damage (assuming you did in fact, fix it) gets reported either as a rental expense or a property improvement. Most likely if the property was uninhabitable due to the damage, your costs to restore it back to it's former condition or better are all property improvements.
Assuming you intend to continue renting it in the future, those property improvements get entered in the assets/deprecation section in the first tax year the property is "available for rent" after the work is complete. They get depreciated over the next 27.5 years.
As for the "loss", you claim that elsewhere on your tax return outside of the SCH E. Your losses are claimed under the Deductions and credits tab in the Casualty and Thefts section. *MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS RIGHT* and read the "learn more" links.
Keep in mind that any loss is on the structure only. you can't claim damage to land unless a volcano opens up and swallows it, or it's beach front property on a cliff and it fell off into the ocean. (The county property appraiser would be highly involved if that happened.)
In the casualty and theft section your loss is based on what you paid for the "STRUCTURE" (not the land), minus all depreciation taken already, and the insurance payout. Basically, in it's simplest form it works like this.
What you paid for/allocated to the cost of the structure minus all depreciation taken equals adjusted cost basis.
Subtract the insurance payout from that adjusted cost basis and the difference is your gain if the insurance exceeds the adjusted cost basis. Otherwise, the difference is your loss if the insurance is less than the adjusted cost basis.
I can help walk you through this. But right now I"m envisioning so many possible scenarios here that covering them all would require me to write a novel. So if you like, give me more details on costs, depreciation, insurance payout, date of loss, date of insurance payout, if you've already fixed the property, intend to fix the property, days rented or available for rent in 2020, days personal use in 2020, and all that stuff. That will enable me to help walk you through this on the 2020 tax return so you get it right.
I rent it 5-6 months & use it at least 5 months/year.
So was there a renter in the property at the time, or was it just 'available for rent'? Maybe you were using it for personal use at the time?
