13. INVESTIGATE INSURANCE COVERAGE

Sometimes old Comprehensive General Liability (CGL) policies, even after the passage of time, may provide funds for cleanup and other response actions. This can be surprising because most people assume that all policies are the "claims made" type, providing coverage only for claims made during the policy year for which a premium is paid. The old CGL policies, because they were the "occurrence" type, can provide coverage if you can show the release or threat of release of contamination occurred during one or more of the early policy years. These old CGL policies can have what is known as a "long tail" and you should not neglect them as a source of money. This is especially true for policies before 1973, but policies issued before are pretty good, too.

Don't forget that household or other personal insurance may provide for some coverage and defense of claims.

This is not to say that the insurance company for your business or agency (or for generators, transporters, or site owners or operators) will pay you its money without a hassle. You should provide a notice of claim followed by a sophisticated statement of claim documenting the dates of contamination, the nature of it, the present and expected cleanup costs, the existence of policies, and the legal basis for believing that coverage exists.

We recommend that you do some serious "insurance archeology" if faced with real estate contamination in order to uncover all possible sources of insurance proceeds.