Environmental Due Diligence

NY Court of Appeals Finds PRP Letter Triggers Contractual Indemnification

CERCLA, Corporate and Real Estate Transactions, Environmental Due Diligence, Hazardous Waste / By

The New York State Court of Appeals held that a PRP letter issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) was sufficient to trigger an indemnity obligation under a purchase and sale agreement. While lower courts have found PRP letters to constitute “suits” within the meaning of  a Comprehensive General Liability policy […]

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Principal New York State Environmental Laws Impacting Commercial Leasing Transactions

Corporate and Real Estate Transactions, Environmental Due Diligence, Hazardous Waste, New York Brownfield Cleanup Program, Underground Storage Tanks / By

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

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Lender that Sold Contaminated Property Agrees to $1.4MM Settlement

CERCLA, common law, Corporate and Real Estate Transactions, Disclosure of Environmental Liabilities, Environmental Due Diligence, Lender Liability / By

We have previously reported on instances where banks have incurred cleanup costs in connection with properties they have sold.  For some examples, click here, here, here, here and here The latest installment of this saga involves Bank of America (BOA) which agreed to pay $1.4MM as part of a settlement involving a dry cleaner property that a

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NYC Enacts New Disclosure Law for School Sites

Disclosure of Environmental Liabilities, Environmental Due Diligence / By

On February 5th, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law Int. No. 126-A (Local Law 12) requiring the Department of Education (DOE) promptly notify parents and other community groups of sampling results identifying elevated levels of in any public school or any proposed public school owned or leased by the DOE. The

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NYSDEC Proposes Amendments to Haz Waste Rules

Environmental Due Diligence, Hazardous Waste / By

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is proposing significant changes to its hazardous waste management regulations (6 NYCRR Parts 370-374 and 376). The proposed amendments are available here. The proposed changes will incorporate thirty-seven (37) amendments to the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery (RCRA) regulations that have been adopted by the federal Environmental

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Do Clients Have To Complete Consultant Questionnaires To Comply With AAI?

CERCLA, Corporate and Real Estate Transactions, Environmental Due Diligence, Lender Liability / By

The short answer is no. Environmental consultants routinely submit environmental questionnaires to property owners and their clients as part of the phase 1 process. Some consultants tell their clients that they are obligated to complete the questionnaire to be able to comply with EPA’s All Appropriate Inquires (“AAI”) rule. A few go as far as

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Does A Phase 1 Have To Be Issued To The Person Seeking To Comply With AAI?

CERCLA, Corporate and Real Estate Transactions, Environmental Due Diligence / By

Purchasers who want to be able to assert the CERCLA Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser (BFPP), Innocent Landowner (ILO) or Continuous Property Owner (CPO) landowner liability protections (LLPs) need to conduct a pre-acquisition investigation that complies with EPA’s All Appropriate Inquires (AAI) rule. A question that is surfacing with surprising frequency is if the phase 1

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Bankruptcy Courts Rules Bank May Not Seek Cost Recovery for Contaminated Site Purchased in Auction Sale

consultant malpractice, Corporate and Real Estate Transactions, Disclosure of Environmental Liabilities, Environmental Due Diligence, Hazardous Waste, Lender Liability / By

Pete Seeger’s popular song from the 1960s “Where have all the Flowers Gone?” has the haunting recurring lyrics “When will they ever learn”. This song came to mind when we came across another case of a bank taking title to contaminated property without doing any environmental due diligence. In this case, Suburban Bank and Trust

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EB-5 Program Can Provide Alternative Source of Funding for Brownfield Projects

Brownfields, Disclosure of Environmental Liabilities, Environmental Due Diligence / By

In a prior post, we discussed how the EB-5 visa immigrant investor program was becoming an important source of construction funding. Since then, the EB-5 immigrant investor program has continued to undergo explosive growth. The popularity of EB-5 is partially because traditional forms of project financing remains difficult to obtain. However, the EB-5 program is

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Cal Appeals Ct Affirms $2MM judgment against foreclosing bank for failure to complete remediation is

common law, Corporate and Real Estate Transactions, Environmental Due Diligence, Lender Liability, vapor intrusion / By

The foreclosing lender in Hoang v. California Pacific Bank, 2014 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 5230 (July 23, 2014) made some curious decisions and the result was the bank was ordered to pay damages to the purchaser that exceed the sales price of the property. The irony is that the lender probably complied with the CERCLA

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