Contaminated land liability - some thoughts from Legalwise Seminars
This morning I addressed Legalwise Seminars on the topic of contamination risk and due diligence. It’s a hot topic in Victoria ahead of the commencement of new environmental protection laws on 1 July 2021. Clients have a limited window of opportunity to prepare for the new scheme.
CLIENTS WITH EXISTING INTERESTS IN LAND
From the property side, clients with existing real estate interests may wish to consider divestment (to avoid embroilment), early remediation (to avoid being subject to the new contamination management laws) and early investigation and preparation (to ensure that they can comply with the new laws on making a notification of contamination to EPA).
CLIENTS & PROPERTY PROFESSONALS
For clients and property professionals working on sales, leases, and development of land, we need to review and if necessary update our thinking and approach to environmental due diligence to make sure we don’t leave clients “holding the baby”: exposed to high compliance costs and possible decreases in land value caused by the new duties to manage contamination.
Below is an abridged version of my slides from the presentation, exploring current and upcoming changes to contaminated land liability and new duties, as well as ideas for environmental due diligence. Grab a coffee and have a quick read
GET IN TOUCH
If you are a client or a practitioner and are interested in how the changes to the law will affect you, please get in touch to talk it through or schedule a virtual coffee (soon to be actual coffee, thank you Melbourne!) or a presentation to your team on the key changes and what you can do to minimise liability.
