Parties to commercial leasing transactions frequently overlook environmental issues because they believe that tenants who do not use large quantities of hazardous chemicals will not be exposed to significant environmental liability. Consequently, the parties may do little to no environmental due diligence and use obsolete or boilerplate lease provision that do not specifically allocate environmental risks. Even when a lessee examines environmental conditions of a site, the investigation is often limited to ensuring that there are no environmental conditions that would impair its ability to operate at the site or that the property is adequate for the intended use.
What these parties do not realize that owners and operators of commercial property can be liable for contamination associated with historic uses. This means that landlords can be liable for contamination caused by their tenants and tenants may be responsible for contamination that preceded its tenancy.
In the second installment of a series that I am publishing in the venerable New York State Bar Journal, I review the key New York State Laws that can impact commercial leasing transactions. The article is available here. The next installment in this series will cover NYC environmental laws. The first article discussing federal environmental laws impacting commercial leasing transactions is available from our publications page here.