Tips For The Retail Leasing Lawyer To Minimize Environmental Liability Risk

Retail leasing attorneys face particular challenges when it comes to managing environmental liability, in large part because of the misconception that prospective commercial tenants cannot be held legally responsible for preexisting contamination that they did not cause. However, the federal "Superfund" law makes clear that owners and operators (aka tenants) of properties with prior contamination can be held legally responsible for all investigation and cleanup costs relating to the contamination, even when they did not contribute to the original contamination.¹ Furthermore, commercial lessees may have state-specific spill reporting and cleanup obligations for petroleum, storage tank and hazardous substance spills that occurred prior to their tenancy.