If there’s an incident involving asbestos, you could be held responsible for clean-up and compensation costs. This may affect the cost and coverage of your insurance if you own a property that contains asbestos or if you carry out work involving asbestos.
Is your insurance policy asbestos ready?
Insurance policies may have exclusions for asbestos, or the level of coverage under a policy may not be enough to cover your actual expenses if asbestos materials are accidentally damaged or disturbed, e.g. during renovations, in a house fire or storms.
There is also a requirement for policy holders to take all reasonable precautions to manage any risk to their property and to declare any potential risks – such as the presence of asbestos – to the insurer when taking out an insurance policy.
While you still have asbestos in your property, speak to your insurer to check what asbestos-related incidents are covered under your insurance policies.
If you are in a trade where you might encounter asbestos in the course of your work, it is important to check your insurance policies for asbestos related exclusions.
The most comprehensive forms of insurance for asbestos-related incidents are only available for planned asbestos removal by a trained professional and are designed to cover unexpected and unintentional issues arising from the asbestos removal process.
How to check and plan for the presence of asbestos
The cost of cleaning up asbestos contamination as a result of accidental damage or disturbance can be significantly more hazardous and more expensive than removing the asbestos safely beforehand.
You can lower your risk of accidental damage and uninsured costs if you check for the presence of asbestos and, if possible, plan to have it safely removed.
Questions to ask insurers
Check that your policies are current and suitable to your situation, and that the level of coverage is adequate. There may be circumstances where an insurance policy cannot respond to fully cover those costs or liabilities, even in the case of an accident or disaster.
Ask your insurer what asbestos-related incidents are covered under your insurance policies, for example:
- What incidents, including natural disasters, does the policy cover?
- How is each disaster defined?
- How much will the policy cover?
- Does the policy provide enough insurance to cover the cost of rebuilding your house and any extra costs you might incur?
- Is the insurance adequate to cover the replacement of your possessions?
- Are your possessions covered for damage caused by potential hazards such as a storm, cyclone, flood or fire?
- In what circumstances will the insurer reject the claim?
- Are you covered for the cost of temporary accommodation if your home is uninhabitable?
- Does pre-existing damage caused by a previous natural disaster or lack of home maintenance impact eligibility of insurance claim payouts?
Who to contact for further information
For more general information about insurance and what it can cover contact the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA)
