Cleanup of Sewage and Remains in Crawl Space

December 3, 2012

We occasionally have a homeowners claim where a house over a crawl space will have a burst sewer pipe, which then contaminates the soil in the crawl space. Do you believe there is coverage to clean the soil since it's within the “footprint “of the house, or can we deny that expense since it is land and we don't cover land?

We also have a pending claim involving an insured under a homeowners policy who died and fluids from the body leaked on the floor, subfloor and into the soil in the crawl space. Just another example if we would owe the cost to clean the soil in the crawl space.

 

Michigan Subscriber

The spilled sewage is waste and as such is considered to be a pollutant and is excluded. As you indicate land is excluded, even the land the dwelling is located on. As far as the remains of the corpse, that is not a pollutant; coverage exists to clean up the dwelling but because of the land exclusion, there is no coverage for cleaning up the ground under the crawl space, even though the corpse is not a pollutant.