Transaction related environmental issues

The increasing amount of environmental legislation has kept environmental liabilities and risks at the top of the agenda in real estate transactions, redevelopment opportunities and M&A deals. These include potential liabilities in respect of contaminated land, permitting issues, asbestos and packaging waste.

The market has become increasingly sophisticated when dealing with how to transfer and apportion environmental risks, and the drafting can be complex. Our environmental lawyers handle major corporate and real estate transactions, in addition to day to day portfolio management across multiple jurisdictions.

How we can help

Our environmental lawyers advise on how and when environmental liability can arise and can be transferred. We routinely:

• draft and negotiate legal provisions to apportion environmental liability appropriately in both real estate and M&A transactions.
• deal with the appointment of technical consultants to assist in the identification of environmental issues and where necessary develop strategies to manage/minimise those risks taking into account the commercial aims of the proposed transaction.
• advise on environmental risk management products such as insurance policies to cover contamination risks.
• advise on residual liability for sellers who have given indemnities against contamination on disposal.
• advise on strategy for dealing with compliance-related issues identified in the course of transaction-related due diligence, for example potential breach of packaging waste regulations and lack of asbestos surveys.