ABSTRACT
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and “Superfund” have made Buyers and Lenders wary of real estate transactions. Recent court decisions have shifted cleanup costs to the Buyer whether or not he was responsible for the contamination. Likewise, Lenders are being held responsible if the property returns to them due to foreclosure. CERCLA provides for a defense against this liability if the Buyer makes “at the time of acquisition, all appropriate inquiry into the previous ownership and uses of property consistent with good commercial or customary practice in an effort to minimize liability.”
