Locations on the policy schedule · managing the clean-up · duty to notify
Environmental damage insurance through Nationale-Nederlanden
Environmental damage cover applies to the addresses shown on the policy schedule. If you rent a second warehouse, move the storage or work on a client's site, the answer to whether you are insured changes.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Milieuschadeverzekering via Nationale-Nederlanden.
The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert. nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
Work out for yourself what it would cost.
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- We compare the offerings of several insurers
- An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
- We arrange the switch, including cancellation
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
Finass Advies acts as an intermediary and compares the market objectively across several insurers. Nationale-Nederlanden is one of the companies we approach, among others for businesses with several sites, with storage of liquids, or with a wider commercial package in which fire, business interruption and environmental cover run together. The choice of insurer follows from the cover required and the conditions. What the product involves is set out on the page environmental damage insurance.
The characteristic feature of this cover is that it is tied to a location. The policy schedule shows the addresses for which you are insured, and outside them the cover does not apply. That seems obvious until a business grows: an extra rented warehouse for overflow stock, a temporary storage area next to the industrial estate, a tank installation that moves to the rear of the site. Every change is a change in risk that you must report. If you do not, the insurer can rely at claims stage on Articles 7:928 and 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code.
Keep the boundary with liability clear as well. This insurance pays your own clean-up costs. If a third party makes a claim against you because the substance has moved his way, that is a liability question, in which Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code and, where a building or an installation is defective, Article 6:174 of the Dutch Civil Code come into play. The public and employers' liability insurance largely excludes environmental damage, so the two policies complement each other rather than overlap.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Environmental damage insurance.
What to look out for
Four points that lead to argument under this cover more often than the premium does.
Every site is listed separately
Check each year that the list of addresses on the policy schedule is still correct, including rented premises and outdoor storage. Contamination at an address that is not listed is not covered, even if the business is genuinely established there. With several locations, a sum insured and excess are often set per address. That matters if one site carries the whole risk.
This policy stops at the fence
If you contaminate a client's ground while carrying out work, that is not first-party loss but liability, and there is a separate section for work at third-party sites. Contamination during transport, for example because a drum topples over on the public highway, also falls outside the location cover and belongs with a transport or liability solution.
The insurer directs the clean-up
As soon as you notify, an environmental expert is usually appointed to assess the remediation plan. If you give instructions yourself and open up the site before agreement has been reached, argument follows about whether the costs were reasonable. So notify first, then act. The duty to notify itself follows from Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code.
Four exclusions that are often only noticed at claims stage
Asbestos is excluded, even where it comes to light during excavation. Administrative fines and penalty payments are never insured. Contamination caused by deliberate breach of permit conditions falls outside, and intent is excluded in any event under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code. Missing inspections of tanks or liquid-tight floors moreover lead to a clause or to a claim being declined.
What does your premium depend on?
- Number and spread of the sites: each address is assessed separately
- Substances stored and quantities: fuel, oils, chemicals and the method of storage
- Soil protection measures: liquid-tight floors, drip trays and collection sumps
- Location in relation to water: a ditch, a water abstraction area or a nature reserve next door
- Inspections and certificates: tank inspections and inspection reports for floors
- Sum insured and excess: set per location and per event
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | Basic | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| Firefighting water carrying soot soaks into the soil beside your warehouse after a fire | Yes | Yes |
| A lorry rams a drum of liquid on the loading dock | Yes | Yes |
| A diesel tank leaks slowly and the contamination only comes to light at an inspection | Provided that | Yes |
| The contamination moves through the groundwater to the neighbours' plot | Provided that | Yes |
| Excavation reveals pollution that was already there when you bought the site | No | No |
| A tenant of your multi-let business premises causes a leak on the same site | No | Provided that |
The extended form covers, besides sudden incidents, gradual contamination that you could not have discovered earlier.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
I am renting an extra warehouse. Do I have to report that?
Yes. Cover applies only to the addresses on the policy schedule. A new site, an extra storage area or a move of the tank installation is a change of risk that you notify in advance. If you do not report it and a loss occurs there, the insurer can reduce or refuse payment under Articles 7:928 and 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code.
Does the cover also work on a client's site?
No, not under this section. Contamination you cause at a client's premises concerns a third party's loss and falls under environmental liability for work at third-party sites. That is separate cover with its own description of the activities. If you do both, have it stated expressly that your own site and work on location are both insured.
Is business interruption during the clean-up insured?
Not as standard. Environmental damage cover pays for investigation, clean-up and reinstatement of the site. The turnover you lose while the clean-up runs falls under business interruption insurance or under a separate section for it. Where a clean-up takes weeks, that is often the largest item. Make sure the indemnity period matches.
The environmental agency imposes an order subject to a penalty payment. Does the insurance pay?
Not the penalty payment itself: that is an administrative means of pressure and not compensation, and such payments are excluded under every indemnity policy. The costs of the investigation and the clean-up you have to carry out to comply with the order can fall under the cover, provided the contamination itself has an insured cause.
Read more
Within Milieuschadeverzekering
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