Hot Environmental Topics

What is Environmental Due Diligence?

Environmental due diligence is the process that evaluates the environmental conditions and risks associated with a property. The process can be at the request of land developers, lenders, attorneys, or private owners who intend to purchase, refinance, or occupy a property.

The rub with performing environmental due diligence in real estate is buyers spend countless hours researching properties to purchase and when the right one is found, no one wants a delay or a cause a problem.

Environmental due diligence is essential for anyone looking to buy a property, whether commercial or residential. Hidden environmental liabilities are a massive problem you can face when purchasing a property that has not been evaluated for environmental due diligence; before making any large real estate transactions, make sure to understand the importance of this process.

When Is Environmental Due Diligence Required?

Lending institutions typically require environmental due diligence before they will finance a real estate purchase, refinance an existing loan, or accept collateral for a construction loan. If a cash buyer is involved, it is up to them to decide if a Phase I or other form of due diligence is necessary.

Who Benefits from Environmental Due Diligence?

Anyone purchasing a property can benefit from environmental due diligence, even if a lending institution is not involved in the sale. The process reduces the chances of someone purchasing real estate inheriting ecological concerns created by the former owners, it also provides an essential legal defense should issues arise.  Buyers get to know if there are environmental issues.  Sellers, although they typically would prefer a buyer not do due diligence, can avoid liability after the sale in the event contamination is found when a Phase I was not performed.  Lastly, lending institutions ensure that their loan is protected from contamination that can diminish the value of the asset.  A million-dollar property with a $400,000 cleanup is not worth 1 million dollars.

How Does Environmental Due Diligence Protect You?

Suppose environmental due diligence is performed before purchasing a property. In that case, the purchaser can gain protection from being held accountable for any pre-existing contaminations on the land according to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensations, and Liability Act provisions. If this process is not completed, the new owner can be held responsible for repairing the contamination.

Buyers can also avoid being hit with the cost of environmental cleanup.   After completing tens of thousands of property transactions, the cleanup of sites is most commonly found when the current owner was lax in performing any environmental due diligence.     There are many properties that are being sold or planned to be sold that have been held by the owner for a number of years and they never did any environmental assessment of the property.  

What Does the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERLCA) Require?

CERCLA establishes the process of determining who is liable for any hazardous substances on a property. Any property owners who are found to violate environmental due diligence can have to pay fines and fix the issues are their own expense, even if they aren’t responsible for the original contamination. Merely owning a contaminated property is enough to make you liable in the eyes of the law; this is why environmental due diligence is so necessary.

What is common Environmental Due Diligence?

The most common environmental due diligence is performing a Phase I ESA.  Phase I is an investigation into past and current ownership and uses of a property to assess the potential existence of hazardous substances or petroleum contamination on, in, or at a property.  It will even look at neighboring properties to see how they can affect the target property.   A Phase I ESA investigation is purely research and a site visit.  There is no testing during Phase I because you don't know if you have to test a site until Phase I is completed.   

There is a level of service you can expect from Phase I as they must be completed by an “environmental professional”.   The goal of the Phase I ESA is to identify recognized environmental conditions (“RECs”) that may affect the property or trigger liability for the buyer and determine whether further due diligence in regard to the RECs is appropriate.  Further evaluation can be Phase II or Phase III.  More about a Phase II & III can be found here  Phase II,  Phase III

A great resource with questions and answers regarding Phase I's can be found below. 

Phase  I  FAQ

Due Diligence Questions?  Call the Experts

888-301-1050

A 1031 exchange gets its name from Section 1031 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, which allows you to avoid paying capital gains taxes when you sell an investment property and reinvest the proceeds from the sale within certain time limits in a property or properties like kind and equal or greater value.

Not dissimilar to the photo below showing the progress of the famous tower, a 1030 Exchange can allow an investor to keep building up a real estate portfolio.   Unfortunately, skilling environmental due diligence on a commercial site can be a costly mistake when remediation is needed.

As a  real estate investor, a 1031 Exchange can allow you to leverage your investment in real estate.  In the environmental due diligence world, we find that 1031 Exchanges tend to skip over environmental due diligence, which places the parties involved at risk.     People need to understand, that the owner of the property =  the RP.  (RP = Responsible Party).  Even in situations where the seller agrees to perform the remediation, we have seen RP's disappear and regulatory agencies will also look toward the owner of the real estate. 

Generally speaking A Phase I Environmental Site Assessment should be performed for all commercial real estate transitions, including 1030 exchanges.    Learn About Phase I

Let's start with the appeal of the 1031 Exchange

First, it allows an investor to pick a new property that allows a greater ROI or diversify the portfolio of properties.

You can use the exchange to consolidate several properties into one asset or vice versa acquiring more properties in exchange for one more valuable one, possible for estate planning.

On an accounting basis, you can reboot the depreciation clock. Meaning rather than simply selling one property and buying another one the 1031 exchange allows you to defer capital gains tax, thus freeing more capital for investment in the replacement property.

That all sounds great right?  Well, the environmental rub is there are time frames for 1030 to execute and we are finding many people have skipped over doing environmental due diligence including Phase I, II & III.   The rub is all Phase I studies follow an outline established by ASTM.  ASTM updates the standard every 8 years.  Generally speaking, when a change occurs Phase I becomes more inclusive.    a Phase I from 20 years ago would be a faster read than one today.  So you can expect that today's Phase I will be more thorough.  

The oil that leaked from this previously sealed pit is now the owner's responsibility to address.

How do you protect yourself with a 1030 Exchange?

Real estate transactions are complicated and 1031 Exchanges add a short window to identify properties, which makes people cut corners.

1. Be savvy and have your environmental consultant evaluate the potential sites.  You can start with a cursory environmental evaluation to find any red flags, you don't always have to do a Phase I.  You can do a Records Search with Risk Assessment (RSRA): Which is where an environmental professional obtains, reviews, and summarizes an ASTM 1527-21 compliant database for the noted property and the surrounding one (1) mile. The review will focus on any pertinent listing for the Subject Property as well as any surrounding properties which could pose a potential Recognized Environmental Concern (REC). The environmental professional will also perform a reconnaissance of the Subject Property. (Access to interior building areas must be granted.).   RSRA's can be converted to Phase I after the decision is made to pursue the property.  RSRA's are helpful if you are evaluating multiple sites but only plan on acquiring one of them.  Now an RSRA is not a substitute for Phase I but rather a way for an investor to evaluate multiple properties without fully committing to Phase I.
2. Of course, you can also perform a Phase I for the target property.   Savvy investors will get the target property owner to share the cost of the Phase I which will allow both buyer and seller to retain rights and use of the report, in case the 1031 Exchange does not go through.
3. You can also have the owner perform the Phase I as a condition of your acquisition.   Hey to be fair, the property is going to need to have a Phase I for any buyer and many sellers contract for the Phase I to help expedite sales, even before the property is listed for sale.   Realtors take note, properties with a completed current Phase I go to settlement faster.  Buyers can always have the Phase I peer reviewed by an environmental professional.  Curren Environmental peer reviews a few hundred Phase I reports every month, so this is not uncommon.
4.  
5. At this point we hope you have a bit more knowledge about Environmental and 1031 Exchanges.  Want to know more?  Call an environmental professional.
   

Pro Tip:  Curren Environmental has been doing Due Diligence for close to three decades (Yea we are old).    When you need a Phase II, well we just pivot and come back to the site with some of our equipment. 90% of other companies call a subcontractor which adds cost and time.

Commercial Due Diligence includes performance of a Phase I ESA

Well how do you perform a Phase I ESA during Covid-19, when government offices are closed or minimally staffed delaying records request and you have settlement in 3 weeks?

Well how do you perform a Phase I ESA during Covid-19, when government offices are closed or minimally staffed -  delaying records request and you have settlement in 3 weeks?  In short you add this known delay into contract as buying real estate during Covid-19 is an unprecedented task.

Lets say you are buying a commercial building in New Jersey during Covid-19 and there are NJDEP (New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection) files that require review.  Of important note if any government environmental agency has records on the property you are purchasing you want those files reviewed.

You do due diligence not just to research current operations but what occurred at the property in the past.

Curren was performing a phase I for just such a situation and here is a quick summary of the obstacle faced with public records and Phase I ESA's.

Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request was  submitted an OPRA records request to the NJDEP on July 1, 2020.

On July 14, 2020 Curren received a response from the NJDEP indicating that due to the COVID-19 restrictions indicting “the NJDEP is not able to fully respond to record requests within the prescribed timeframe under the Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A.47:1A-1 et seq (OPRA). The NJDEP work force has transitioned to work remotely from home, impacting the NJDEP's ability to access onsite and archived government records, conduct onsite inspections, and copy responsive records. In accordance with N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(i)(2), which states that the deadlines under OPRA, to grant or deny access to a government record shall not apply if no reasonable efforts are available based on the circumstances, and in maintaining consistency with the social distancing directives of the Governor, the NJDEP is not able to complete the search for responsive records and respond to this request. Once resources allow, the NJDEP will complete and issue the final Government Records Request Form response to this request. We apologize for this inconvenience.”.

On July 13, 2020 the NJDEP submitted a response indicating “At this time, your request is not able to be completed within the statutory time frame specified in OPRA”.

On July 20, 2020, Curren received another response from NJDEP indicating that “Based on this record request, responsive records have been identified and will be emailed to you within 5-business days”.

On August 6, 2020 Curren reached out to the NJDEP requesting information as to the status of the email. In response to this email the NJDEP requested that Curren recontact them if the information was not received by August 18, 2020.

On August 20, 2020, Curren again submitted a request regarding the status of the information and received a reply indicating that we should have the data by Monday August 24.

On August 21, 2020, Curren received an email from the NJDEP with pdf files regarding the site. 

So approximately 7 weeks after a request was submitted the public records were produced.  You can repeat this same story for Phase's performed in Pennsylvania and Delaware, where we have seen similar delays.

If you are buying a commercial property and you are completing a phase I ESA, you need to prepare for longer reporting time frames.

If there one aspect of the economy that has strong forward momentum it is residential and commercial real estate sales.  The boom in real estate transactions (transactions are limited based on availability of properties for sale) are driven by historically low interest rates and the economic blow of Covid-19 on businesses that are driving prices lower and creating a buying opportunity for strategic investors.   In short there are businesses that are closed and real estate is being listed for sale and sold.  This is occurring by both owner operators of property as well as owner/landlords that have lost rental income and are selling the properties. By strategic investors we are referencing a buyers that have near immediate plans for the properties being purchased.  The closure of restaurants and many small business due to Covid-19 has left a dramatically different real estate market

Commercial Due Diligence includes performance of a Phase I ESA.    A Phase I researches current and past operations and diligent inquiries encompass obtaining and reviewing available public records.  Anything submitted to a government agency by nature is subject to review under the Open Public Records Act or OPRA.   Having a Phase I without reviewing OPRA records leaves a gaping data gap in your due diligence.

Expert Due Diligence Advice

Curren Environmental has been solving tank related issues for over 20 years.   Oil tanks were like cell phones, they were ubiquitous in homes in the Northeastern United States.  Oil was king as the graph shows:

Oil heat was more popular than natural gas up until 1980!

In 1950 43.9% of homes had oil heat

In 1960 62.9% of homes had oil heat

In 1970 52.6% of homes had oil heat

So in 2019, what are the odds the home your buying has or had an oil tank? Pretty high for sure.   

Tank Scans with GPR = Buyer Due Diligence

A tank scan found this tank.  You can see from the many holes in the tank, that the tank leaked.   Thankfully the home buyer had a tank sweep completed and found the tank.  The homeowner had to remove and remediate the oil tank.   

 Any purchaser of commercial real estate is performing Phase I due diligence to protect their interest, not is once again not typically fulfilling a requirement of the law.  Due diligence is a prudent practice to follow for any commercial purchaser.   Many buyers contact our office with little to no real knowledge of what a Phase I is and are being directed to perform one by their attorney or realtor.  Many people view a Phase I as getting their hand stamped and the quicker the better so the transaction can go to settlement.  The due diligence aspect is many times an afterthought.

We are going to cover the different scenarios when a Phase I is completed and when a Phase II or III is triggered and why that is a good thing.

The best possible outcome for all parties after completing a Phase I, in the eyes of a buyer or seller is that the Phase I finds no issues with the site and accordingly there are no recommendations that any additional work is required such as a Phase II or Phase III.   This is not as common an outcome as many people think or expect.  Sellers do not want you to complete a Phase I as it delays the settlement and opens up the possibility that the Phase I may find an issue.   Buyers do not want a Phase I performed for the same reasons, citing the time it took to find the perfect site at the right price as well as monies already spent to date.  The Phase I is viewed as a necessary evil and one that at best could cost money and delay the sale from 2 to 6 weeks and at worst strike a crushing blow to the sale when a problem is uncovered that the owner was unaware of and unable or unwilling to address.

The odds that the Phase I will come back clean, meaning no RECs are found, is based on numerous factors including the date of site development and historical usage of the site.  We have found that some of the most innocuous appearing sites (upholstery and insurance office), have been found to have potential environmental concerns from PRIOR usage.

A common Phase I situation is a client that is not required to perform a Phase I by the bank either because the loan amount is not triggering it or they are paying cash or there is a 1031 exchange.  These are rush hand stamped Phase I’s as there are already planned deadlines and the Phase I request is coming from the buyers attorney.  The rush part of the Phase I need is not based on anything pertinent relative to environmental conditions, but rather business or financial needs.   This is where hand stamping is most common.   Timing is relative and the sooner a decision is made on performing the Phase I the faster it will be completed.  In a perfect world a Phase I would be initiated by the seller prior to listing the property for sale.  In practice, it is one of the last things a buyer completes.

Time necessary to complete a Phase I varies.  Most Phase I’s are completed within three weeks, some can take as long as 6 to 8 weeks.  The difference in timing is based on the presence of records at the State and local levels.  The presence of files for a site at an environmental agency is typically unknown until a Phase I is initiated and the agencies are contacted regarding any files.  If files are found, the review of reasonably ascertainable files is required.  There could be a multiple week wait to get access to these files as they may be in storage or the first available date the State gives is 4 weeks away.   The time to access environmental files at a State level is the under looked aspect of a Phase I.  The determination that no files exist allows the Phase I process to be expedited.  The presence of environmentally-associated records indicates that investigation/remediation work may have been initiated or completed.  Records must be reviewed by a person with the experience and knowledge of applicable regulations to confirm that investigations/remediation has been completed in accordance with the local, State and Federal regulations.  A recent Phase I had pertinent files that were at the State.  Based on ability to accumulate the records and schedule the first available review date, it took five weeks to just perform a cursory review.  The review found that the site was formerly a gas station and had gas tanks removed and properly closed though the State.  What the file review did not indicate was the presence of other tanks on the site that appeared to have been either removed or left in place.  The unknown tanks consisted of a heating oil, waste oil and kerosene tank.   This triggered the need for a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey of the site to search for the possible missing tanks.  In this case, the buyer was sure that all the tanks were removed and signed off by the State, unfortunately that was not the case.  In this case, the buyer did not buy the site and the owner had more work to complete including the removal of the tanks.

Questions?  

When you start a Phase I, anticipate that a Phase II may be the necessary.  A Phase II is testing or further invasive evaluation of a suspected environmental concern.   Another Phase I performed found the need to complete soil borings on the site in areas where the operations of the site may have allowed historical seepage of oils and chemicals into the soil.  The Phase II did indeed find contamination in all the borings completed.   At this point the purchaser was into the property for over 20K, which including attorney’s fees, zoning applications, engineering and environmental.  The next step after finding an area of contamination is to determine the extent of contamination and the associated costs for remediation.  This added weeks upon weeks to the financial deal which could lead to the potential purchaser to look for another property weighed against the monies spent to date.  Most contracts allow the buyer or seller to back out of the transaction if repair expenses exceed a dollar amount or a time limit.   Usually at this point the buyer, thinking they were buying a clean site, is upset about monies thrown down the drain and when the end will occur.   Rarely does the purchaser weigh the fact that the Phase I did exactly what it was designed to do which is evaluate for potential environmental issues that could devalue the site.   Slightly less than $100,000.00, later and almost 7 months from the start of the Phase I was the property cleaned up.  The buyer dodged a remediation expense that surely would have been in their lap if the property was bought without a Phase I as the party they sell too would most likely not be as foolish to purchase without performing Due Diligence.

The photo below is a drum storage area, the floor below the wood was heavily stained.  It was flagged in the Phase I as an AOC and testing was recommended and the testing found contamination.

Phase I cost sharing.  Due to the unexpected outcome of any Phase I’s in some instances the expense of the Phase I is shared between buyers and sellers.  The advantage for both parties it not just financial (50/50 split), but ownership of the report.  If the transaction falls apart for reasons other than environmental finds issues, the owner has possession of the report and can share same with the next prospective purchaser.

Phase II cost sharing is more complicated.  The Phase II by definition involves physical examinations and in many cases testing.  Phases II expenses can dwarf the cost of a Phase II and due to the potential of finding an issue, many sellers would prefer the testing not be performed.  This is particularly common when the issues being investigated relate to potential conditions that predate the current owner.  This is a very common situation if the current owner purchased the site in the last 20 years and did not perform a Phase I.  Cost sharing is again valuable as the owner has rights to the report and data generated by the Phase II.   In most cases if the Phase II finds an issue that must be addressed or remediated (Phase III) the phase II has to be shared with the owner to document the findings.   Phase I cost sharing is far more common than in Phase II situation.