Environmental issues in property transactions—acting for a buyer

Published by a ��Ƶ Environment expert

Practice notes

Environmental issues in property transactions—acting for a buyer

Published by a ��Ƶ Environment expert

Practice notes

Buyer beware

An innocent buyer can inherit significant environmental Liabilities in relation to land and buildings. ‘Caveat emptor’, meaning ‘let the buyer beware’, is a Common law principle meaning the seller is under no duty to disclose material facts to a prospective buyer. See Practice Notes: Property—enquiries before contract and Misrepresentation, misstatement and Non-disclosure in property matters.

The buyer must therefore make its own searches, enquiries and inspections before entering into a contract, to find out the information it requires about the property. See Practice Notes: Pre-contract searches and Types of environmental searches and investigations.

Contaminated land

Clean up of contaminated land can include very high costs for land remediation, running into several million pounds for liabilities associated with groundwater contamination. It can also result in property blight and frustrate the property transaction.

The local authority has a statutory duty under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA 1990) to investigate and secure remediation of contaminated land in their area. See Practice Note: Contaminated land—local authority duty to inspect land.

Although grant

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Liabilities definition

What does Liabilities mean?

A scheme's liabilities are its future benefit payments and expenses. The scheme is in deficit if the current value of its liabilities is more than the assets, or in surplus if the liabilities are less.

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