Environmental due diligence is essential when choosing a residential or commercial property. Prospective developers, investors, and property owners should consider the property’s location, structural integrity, and environmental aspect. They need to conduct an environmental site assessment to prevent investing in contaminated property and dealing with environmental liabilities.
Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) is part of the due diligence before a property acquisition. It provides a comprehensive investigation to determine whether the property is polluted or has been exposed to hazardous chemicals.
Buying a contaminated property will result in high costs in the future. Potential owners, occupiers, developers, and lenders need to identify this possibility and deal with contamination remediation. Neglecting contamination issues will make community members and tenants susceptible to health issues.
Remediation is costly and might exceed the property’s value. Therefore, it is ideal to know this before finalizing an acquisition.
These consequences make a Phase I Site Assessment necessary. An experienced environmental professional and commercial building engineer NJ will help clients decide whether it is wise to invest in the property.
The professionals will review the property’s documents, including its ecological records and historical operations. They will observe possible mold growth, harmful chemicals, and other waste products present on the property’s past and current activities. Then, an inspector will visit the site and conduct a commercial building inspection NJ. It aims to assess the property and its structures to know if there are contamination sources.
The professionals will also interview for additional perspectives from past and present owners, operators, tenants, authorities, or individuals. Their knowledge will help the environmental consultants better understand the property’s condition.
After acquiring the necessary information, the environmental professionals will organize and summarize the findings, data gaps, conclusions, and recommendations. They will provide a comprehensive report to help potential property owners decide what course to follow after. The report can also recommend future assessments of any recognized environmental conditions on the property.
To know more about Phase I Environmental Site Assessments, here is an article from Lockatong Engineering.