Pre Acquisition Audits

Resource and Environmental Consultants audit property and businesses to enable owners, purchasers and other interested parties to understand their potential liabilities. The benefits of using REC are numerous:

REC provides an independent investigation of a site's history and the impact of former activities on the status of the subsurface soils and groundwater. Ideally these services should be procured prior to the acquisition of the site to enable the financial risks to be addressed before the sale transaction.

REC has been involved with acquisitions of sites where a site walkover has not been carried out prior to acquisition. On these sites, REC uncovered environmental risks that could have been avoided if the audit was carried out at the appropriate time and avoided the financial penalties and time delays in the subsequent land reclamation programme.

By Using REC, the Developer Can Ensure:

· Environmental risks are adequately investigated, and environmental risks effectively managed.
· Developments meet planning conditions and best practice guidelines.
· Financial penalties and delays are avoided.
· That the sale of the site is not delayed due to the blight of residual contamination.
· That the environmental setting is adequately understood.
· That an audit of waste and fuel handling procedures has been completed.
· That the asbestos risk of the building is known.

Depending upon the type of contamination encountered in the pre-acquisition survey, REC can either supervise the reclamation of the site, after the development of a suitable specification for the work, or undertake the reclamation as part of an integral part of the services provided. REC is able to provide a one-stop solution for the development of a site from initial investigation through to site remediation.

REC can assist legal practices in the provision of expert services for due diligence surveys as part of company takeovers and mergers. When a company with land or a property portfolio is being acquired there is, in nearly all cases, an element of environmental and financial risk. The purchasers and their legal advisers need to determine whether any historical or current site use poses a risk to workers and the wider environment and hence require the attachment of a financial liability.