Firefighting water · soot deposits · tenant or owner
Environmental damage insurance through a.s.r.
Most environmental claims do not start with a leaking tank but with a fire. Firefighting water carries away whatever was inside the building, and the ash settles on the plots next door.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Milieuschadeverzekering via a.s.r..
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A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
A environmental damage insurance pays the costs of investigating and cleaning up contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water. Finass places this cover through, among others, a.s.r., often combined with the fire and liability cover of the same company, and weighs that objectively against more than thirty other insurers. Which insurer it becomes follows from the substances you store and the position of your site.
The scenario that leads to a claim most often is a fire. The fire service uses water, which runs off across the site, into the sewer or into a ditch, taking with it whatever was in the building: oil, paint, coolant, melted plastic, the remains of batteries. What then has to happen falls into two types of cost. Clearing clearing debris belongs to your buildings or contents cover; cleaning cleaning soil, sewer and water belongs here. Without this policy, that second bill stays with you.
When it comes to who receives the bill, your position on the site matters. If you are the owner, the authorities approach you as the party with control over the land. If the contamination arose from a defect in the building or in an installation, then Article 6:174 of the Dutch Civil Code also comes into play. If you are the tenant, the contamination was caused by your business activities and you will be approached under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code by the owner or by a neighbour. Both parties have their own interest in cover; record in writing who insures what.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Environmental damage insurance.
What to look out for
Four points that, after a fire, make the difference between clearing up and remediating.
Clearing up and remediating are two separate bills
Clearing debris, demolition and disposal is an item on the fire policy, with its own limit. Excavating soil, pumping groundwater and having a remediation plan drawn up is environmental damage. If the cover under the two policies does not run in step, a gap appears at precisely the moment the contractor has to be instructed. Have the fit between those two policies checked in advance.
Firefighting water follows the lowest path
Water running off the site ends up in the sewer or the surface water. The water authority or the council then arranges cleaning and recovers the costs. A containment facility, a shut-off valve on the site drain or a kerb around the storage area limits that loss considerably and counts in the underwriting. Report an incident immediately to the insurer and to the authorities, because Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code requires you to report it in good time.
Soot and ash at the neighbours
Deposits of soot and combustion residues on neighbouring plots, on a vegetable garden, on grassland or in a ditch amount to contamination on third-party land. That does not fall under the section for your own site but under a separate section, and, in so far as it concerns compensation to that neighbour, under liability. Check that both sections appear on your policy; cover for your own site alone will not help you here.
Four fixed limits
Asbestos is usually excluded or separately capped, even when it is spread across the site by a fire. Contamination that was already there before the start date is for your own account. That is why the insurer asks for a baseline soil survey. Administrative fines and penalty payments are never insured, because they are a punishment. And loss caused by intent or deliberate breach of permit conditions falls under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code.
What does your premium depend on?
- Substances stored: type, quantity and packaging
- Fire load of the building: what can be released in a fire
- Soil protection measures: liquid-tight floor, drip trays and kerbs
- Drainage from the site: connection to sewer, ditch or infiltration
- Position on the site: owner, tenant or user of part of it
- Sum insured and excess: per event and per insurance year
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
Which section pays
| Situation | Own location | Third-party location |
|---|---|---|
| Diesel oil from a cracked above-ground tank seeps into the soil beneath your warehouse | Yes | No |
| Chemicals spilled by a supplier at your loading and unloading bay | Yes | No |
| Cleaning of the municipal sewer after a leak in your workshop | Yes | Provided that |
| A leaking underground pipe contaminates the groundwater beneath the neighbouring plot | No | Yes |
| Your engineer spills hydraulic oil on a client's yard during maintenance | No | Provided that |
| A fall in the value of your site once the clean-up has been fully completed | No | No |
Without the section for third-party sites, everything that ends up beyond your own fence stays uninsured.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
Our premises have burned down. What does the fire policy pay and what does this policy pay?
The fire policy pays for the building and the contents, plus clearing and disposing of the debris within the limit that applies to it. Environmental damage insurance pays for investigating and cleaning contaminated soil, groundwater, sewer and surface water. Those two operations run into each other on the site, so co-ordinate the notifications and the instructions to contractors.
We rent the business premises. Do I need this insurance?
Yes, if your business activities can be a source of contamination. The owner usually insures only his own interest in the land. If you cause the contamination, the owner or local residents will approach you under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code, and the lease may also oblige you to hand the site back clean.
Our roof contains asbestos. What does that mean in a fire?
The clean-up then becomes a certified remediation project, with the area cordoned off and controlled disposal. Those costs in particular are excluded under most policy conditions, or limited to a separate maximum. Have it recorded which roofs on your site contain asbestos and discuss whether replacing them beforehand changes the underwriting and the premium.
We have solar panels on the roof. Does that change anything?
In a fire, fragments of panels, foil and roof covering are scattered across the site and sometimes across neighbouring plots. Collecting and disposing of them follows the regime for hazardous waste and is more laborious than ordinary debris. Report the installation to both the fire and the environmental cover, and keep the installation details and inspection reports to hand.
Read more
Within Milieuschadeverzekering
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- Chubb zakelijk verzekering milieuaansprakelijkheid eigen terrein
- Allianz zakelijk milieuschadeverzekering
- De goudse zakelijk milieuschadeverzekering
- Environmental damage: soil contamination and clean-up costs
- Environmental damage insurance for a VvE (Dutch owners' association) through Avéro Achmea
Similar pages
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