Often overlooked, commercial real estate tenants, like buyers, should undertake environmental assessments before entering leases. Tenants are title holders just like buyers. Thus, they face succumbing to potentially expensive clean-up liabilities far exceeding a real estate tract or lease’s value. Skipping this pre-lease process can be disastrous. With so many landlords having financially failed over the “Great Recession”, the EPA is now looking to more tenants to cover clean-up costs. Because of this, the EPA last month announced new procedures for how a tenant can obtain documentation to protect against inheriting a prior site owner or tenant’s environmental remediation liability. This pre-lease EPA process imposes the undertaking of specific legal steps to obtain the desired liability protection.
KDDK is experienced in the process of confidently undertaking the assessments and prosecuting such pre-purchase/pre-lease environmental due diligence. We can help your company avoid the environmental perils fraught in modern transactions. For more information, contact G. Michael Schopmeyer or a member of the Environmental Law practice team.
