Insured sustained damage in Hurricane Ida. During the mitigation efforts, they discovered asbestos underneath the flooring. Wouldn't this be considered a pollutant under the policy and coverage afforded based on policy wording under the commercial policy.
Under the Commercial, CP 00 10 10 00 ISO policy, it states:
Pollutant Clean-up and Removal
We will pay your expense to extract "pollutants" from land or water at the described premises if the discharge, dispersal, seepage, migration, release or escape of the "pollutants" is caused by or results from a Covered Cause of Loss that occurs during the policy period. The expenses will be paid only if they are reported to us in writing within 180 days of the date on which the Covered Cause of Loss occurs.
This Additional Coverage does not apply to costs to test for, monitor or assess the existence, concentration or effects of "pollutants". But we will pay for testing which is performed in the course of extracting the "pollutants" from the land or water.
The most we will pay under this Additional Coverage for each described premises is $10,000 for the sum of all covered expenses arising out of Covered Causes of Loss occurring during each separate 12-month period of this policy.
Louisiana Subscriber
While we initially agreed that this additional coverage would apply to the situation described, we have done more thorough research, resulting in a revised answer to your question. The additional coverage that is provided is for pollution testing and/or extraction on land or water. This was asbestos "underneath the flooring", which sounds like it was either the sub-flooring or the insulation underneath the sub-floor. In either case, it would neither be land nor water, as required by the coverage. Therefore, we must apply the language specific to land or water and as such, there would not be coverage for this asbestos removal.