Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (the Contaminated Land Regime) has been the subject of much navel gazing over recent years. The Regime was brought into effect in England on April 1 2001 after originally being introduced as an amendment to the 1990 Act under the Environment Act 1995. The Regime empowers the Environment Agency and local authorities to force remediation of land designated as contaminated. A large part of my role as an environmental lawyer at Cobbetts is dealing with the potential application and effect of the Regime on both corporate and property transactions. The Contaminated Land Regime is based on the 'polluter pays' principle, in that the regulatory authorities ensure that the person primarily responsible for clean-up of a contaminated site is the person who caused or knowingly permitted the contaminants to be present in the property (the Class A liable person). It may not be possible to locate the Class A liable person, and in such cases liability then passes to the current owner or occupier of the land (the Class B liable person). This means that any purchaser of a property or a business may find themselves with huge liability in respect of clean-up costs. The Law Society is sufficiently worried about potential claims of negligence against solicitors in connection with Contaminated Land to issue a warning card outlining the scope of the Regime and laying down a protocol to be followed in dealing with transactions. I advise on potential liabilities on property purchases and on corporate transactions where a target company is being sold that owns or leases property. Initially there is an information gathering exercise to see what the vendor knows about the property and whether there are any entries on any registers kept by the regulatory bodies or the local planning authority. A site visit may reveal past contaminative uses, which will trigger the need for further surveys of the property. If it is thought that there may be potential contamination of the site, the client must evaluate the risks involved and decide whether a full report by environmental consultants is needed. Relevant deeds of appointment are drafted and negotiated and checks made to ensure that the consultants have adequate insurance to compensate the client for any loss if the report were incorrect. If there is contamination identified on the site, contractual provisions are negotiated to deal with such problems. The work goes beyond pure law. To a certain extent, you have to rely on your environmental consultants when dealing with the technical aspects of contamination and risk, but you must have some degree of technical knowledge, which makes environmental law a diverse and interesting branch of the profession. David Holland: Solicitor, Cobbetts, Manchester | 
