If you are currently pursuing some commercial real estate properties, or you plan to buy one soon, you should go and check the property for any signs of toxic pollution or contamination. The environmental problem could have been caused by toxic waste from the polluted earth, the water from the ground or the building structure itself. If left as is, it might affect not just the source building, but also the properties near the estate. If that does happen, the property owner might face lawsuits and claims for damages and the clean-up costs for clearing up the toxic waste and pollutants. The total costs of the clean-up involved could be staggering and might even go beyond the value of the property itself. If there is contamination, the relevant authorities might take action and you may be faced with penalties in relation to the laws governing the environment.

Any physical or structural damages as well as personal injuries caused by pollutants and toxic waste that originate from your estate property can get you into a lot of trouble, including lawsuits and penalties. As a result, you will need to take extra precautions and learn the proper methods to protect you and your company.

Since the environmental laws and regulations are still new, which most of them have been in place for less than 20 years, there always constant restructuring of the laws to keep-up with the latest development. Keeping up with the new regulations might be a burden for new players in the real estate market. Although there are hundreds of laws regarding the environmental aspect of commercial real estate market, only few are important in helping you understand the consequences of environmental penalties.

The two most well known of these laws are CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980), and the amendment, SARA (Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986). These are a federal funds set up to aid the clean-up of abandoned sites that have been polluted and to recover costs from potentially responsible parties.

Perhaps you feel that purchasing a new policy again would be hurtful towards your financial position. If that is the case, remember to review and read through your current Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance policy. Some references can be found in past court cases that the statements found in Commercial General Liability policies covers charges regarding environmental problems or toxic harm, even though it was not openly made known by the insurance salesman. This trend of court cases has caused insurance companies to review and change the terms and conditions of their CGL policies so that it won't cover charges and payments regarding environmental problems and pollution.

Recently, insurance companies decided to launch new insurance policies specially designed to cover for environmental risks of commercial properties. Some of the newly launched policies would include coverage in areas regarding risks of payments for property clean-up of pollutants, damages suffered to the properties of a third party or physical harm, claims from third party for the clean-up payments because of pollution caused by the policy owner's property which is not within the insured site and also risks for clean-up of properties which are not owned by anyone, and any payments accrued from third party's claim for payment of transportation costs of products which caused the pollution problems in their area.

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