HOUSINGNEWS REPORT
FEATURED ARTICLE
Home Price Appreciation by Superfund Risk Avg of 10-Year HPA Avg of 5-Year HPA Avg of 1-Year HPA
On the other hand — and perhaps surprisingly — there are buyer protections which have been built into the system. When the Superfund program began there were worries that as the rules were then written that subsequent, non-polluting owners could be held responsible for massive clean-up costs. In an effort to provide relief, Congress passed the “Small Business Liability Protection Act” in 2001. According to the EPA it “exempts de micromis contributors of hazardous substances and household, small business, and nonprofit generators of municipal solid waste from liability for Superfund response costs at National Priority List sites.” In addition, the rules also exempt from Superfund liability “contiguous property owners, prospective purchasers, and clarified appropriate inquiry for innocent landowners.” Given that all properties are unique it follows that the due diligence which works for one site will not be sufficient for another. For details and specifics buyers will need to review each property with qualified attorneys and environmental specialists. Money Each year about an eighth of the entire EPA budget is spent on Superfund cleanups, roughly $1.1 billion in fiscal 2016. Another $1.1 billion has been set
-1.5%
37.6%
Very High
6.3%
-0.1%
38.2%
High
6.3%
0.4%
45.3%
Moderate
6.3%
2.3%
42.7%
Very Low
7.1%
also offers a more precise list of possible problems, a list which includes:
The EPA says it’s “the prospective purchaser’s sole responsibility to ensure that its proposed use does not interfere with or impede the site’s cleanup or protectiveness. EPA does not offer any guarantees or warranties as to the compatibility of a proposed use with the cleanup. It is also the purchaser’s sole responsibility to maintain liability protection status as a bona fide prospective purchaser.” Not be outdone, the Army says the FUDS program “does not certify that the property is clean, particularly where contamination may be present as the result of actions of parties other than DoD.”
• Hazardous, toxic and radioactive waste (HTRW). • Building demolition and/or debris removal (BD/DR). • Military munitions response program (MMRP). • Containerized hazardous, toxic and radioactive waste (CON/HTRW), such as underground storage tanks. Warranties & Liability If there’s one certainty about federal cleanup guarantees it’s that they’re not absolute.
ATTOM Data Solutions • P6
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