Environmental Contamination

[Pawel]

Has anybody had any experience dealing with environmentally contaminated properties? Was there a process you had to go through in terms of paying for permits / clean-up / government issues / government grants / etc. Any specific shared experience with this matter would be greatly appreciated.

[Frank]

There are different phases to conducting an Environmental assessment, and clean-up of a property.  Any good Engineering Consulting firm will be glad to assist you - for a fee of course.   Also, every Municipality and Province has its own unique method of dealing with the rules, and funding for these things.  In Ontario there are Brownfield regulations which govern what must be done, and each Municipality has its own program of funding for it - some only fund clean-ups in specific areas that they want to see re-developed. 

Generally, you receive future tax credits on the increased value of the property (assuming you are going to build something), which are designed to offset all or a portion of your costs of clean-up.  If you buy a property for a buck and it costs a million to clean it up and the resulting value of the property is a million then you are not out-of-pocket.  If however, the resulting value is only half a million, then you need to make sure that there is another half a million available in grants, or you are a loser.

You need to dig much further on each specific property, and I mean that literally and figuratively.  Make sure you get a consultant that knows and is in tune with the local rules and funding.   Also, in case you didn't figure it out, you really need to have deep pockets.

Has anybody had any experience dealing with environmentally contaminated properties? Was there a process you had to go through in terms of paying for permits / clean-up / government issues / government grants / etc. Any specific shared experience with this matter would be greatly appreciated.