Reducing Environmental Risk

You Need Us For A Real Estate Transaction When …

Contact Periconi, LLC, in any of these situations:

  • You need assistance in drafting environmental provisions in a contract of sale in order to protect yourself from risk and future liabilities
  • The parties to a commercial real estate deal cannot figure out a fair way to allocate the costs of cleaning up environmental contamination and need creative suggestions
  • “Everyone knows” the property is contaminated because of a leaking tank or an asbestos problem, but no one knows what to do
  • The lender tells you a Phase I environmental site assessment needs to be prepared, but you know you shouldn’t rely on Google to find a qualified environmental consultant
  • The Phase I ESA tells you there are “recognized environmental conditions,” but it is unclear what the next steps are
  • You want to obtain “bona fide prospective purchaser protection” for your property acquisition but are not sure what is required beyond the Phase I ESA
  • A Phase II ESA has been prepared, but it only gives a range of costs necessary to remediate the contamination reflected in the soil or groundwater sample results
  • You do not know whether environmental insurance is available to resolve some of the difficult problems in the deal

You need an environmental attorney when you or your client wants to know:

  • Whether and how development of the property could meet the requirements of either New York state’s Brownfields Cleanup Program, or New York City’s Voluntary Cleanup Program
  • How to get the best estimates of the costs of, and how to evaluate the adequacy of, proposals to clean up the property
  • Whether there is a potential claim against the prior owner for failure to disclose an environmental liability that he knew or should have known about and should have disclosed to the client/purchaser
  • Whether there is a potential claim against an adjacent property owner for contamination on the property that the client now owns
  • What the scope of your liability is for property damage and personal injury to nearby properties from contamination migrating from the client’s property before and after purchase
  • If completion of a Phase I ESA is all that needs to be done to obtain “bona fide prospective purchaser” protection
  • How to get a “no further action” letter from a government agency to meet a lender’s requirements
  • What the impact of contamination is on the value to your property
  • Whether, even after cleanup, there is an actionable “stigma” attached to the property

See also a list of the top 10 recognized environmental conditions (RECs) that may affect a real estate transaction.

Call 646-733-4487 or send an email inquiry to schedule a consultation with one of our lawyers.