BLDI provides environmental risk identification, assessment, quantification, and mitigation services to lenders, private equity firms, purchasers, and sellers of businesses and real estate. All appropriate inquiry, commonly referred to as environmental due diligence (EDD), is necessary to provide environmental liability protection for a prospective purchaser or for an entity that may have to foreclose on a property; however, conducting EDD for workout and foreclosure is different than for standard transactions.
During the foreclosure process, some common complications that BLDI can offer expertise on include the following:
- Manage environmental issues and/or risk
- Assist with chemical inventories and disposal
- Identify potential environmental conditions that may affect resale of the property
- For sites with underground storage tanks (USTs), assure that the tank insurance is kept current and assist with UST compliance issues
- Ensure that the EDD is completed within the correct timeframe (Michigan only: allows completion of EDD, including Baseline Environmental Assessment (BEA) within 45 days after foreclosure)
- Conduct Due Care activities as necessary
Liability mitigation can be obtained through use of statutory protections, legal agreements, and transfers, as well as remediation of contaminated media. BLDI’s staff has extensive experience in all such manners of EDD and risk management. Executing proper and complete EDD during the foreclosure process goes a long way toward minimizing a bank’s risk.