Are You Insured? What Property Owners Need To Know Before Allowing Environmental Work

Property owners that allow access to their property for environmental work often seek to be included as "additional insureds" on insurance policies held by those doing the work. For example, this routinely occurs when a prospective buyer conducts due diligence on a seller's property, or when a previous owner or other responsible party is required to return to the property to remediate contamination. Typically, sale contracts and access agreements require the purchaser or the remediating party to ensure that its consultants and contractors/subcontractors name the property owner as an additional insured on their insurance policies, which in the event of an incident, would give the property owner the ability to make a claim under the policy for damages if those accessing the property do not make the property owner whole. Blanket additional insured language that is common in many general liability, auto and contractor's liability insurance policies includes as