Blog
Plain-English guidance on environmental liens, AULs, chain of title research, and Phase I ESA due diligence.
Articles
- Asbestos and Lead, Disclosure Rules Versus the Land RecordWhy hazardous building materials rarely produce a recorded instrument, the narrow cases where they do, and what to ask for when the record is silent.Read article →
- Former Shipyards and Marine Repair Yards, in the RecordWhat hull blasting, solvent work and asbestos insulation leave behind, which instruments reach the land record, and why the waterfront is its own problem.Read article →
- Environmental Liens in Foreclosure and ReceivershipWhat a lender inherits by taking title, how a superlien changes the arithmetic, and why the protections that matter depend on inquiry made before acquisition.Read article →
- Former Coal Ash Impoundments and What Reaches the RecordWhere coal combustion residuals were stored and where they were given away as fill, what a lien and AUL search can surface, and what stays with the agencies.Read article →
- PFAS Restrictions and What Reaches the Land RecordPFAS cleanups are recent, so the recorded trail is thin and uneven. What a lien and AUL search can surface on these sites, and what it cannot reach.Read article →
- Solar Development on a Capped Landfill or BrownfieldClosed landfills make attractive solar sites, and the recorded closure instruments decide what can be built. What to search before the term sheet.Read article →
- Former Plastics and Rubber Plant Due DiligencePolymer plants ran on solvents and additives, leased their buildings, and left the operator out of the chain. What the land record shows and what it never held.Read article →
- How to Read an Environmental Lien and AUL ReportThe scope line tells you what the findings mean, and a clean result is narrower than it looks. What each part establishes, and where the boundary sits.Read article →
- Former Utility Substation and Service Yard Due DiligenceSubstation parcels are small, ringed by easements, and historically full of transformer oil. What the chain shows and what the county index will never hold.Read article →
- Terminating or Modifying an AUL, and What the Record ShowsActivity and use limitations can be amended or released, and the paperwork should reach the county. Who signs, what to read, and why two sources can disagree.Read article →
- Former Quarry and Mine Site Reclamation Due DiligenceA reclaimed pit looks finished from the road. The land record shows the severance, the haul routes, and any recorded restriction or lien the closure left behind.Read article →
- Former Semiconductor and Electronics Plant Due DiligenceChip fabs and circuit board plants used solvents heavily, and the land record shows the campus, the easements, and any recorded lien or use limitation left behind.Read article →
- Former Airfields and FBOs, Fuel, Foam, and the Land RecordFuel farms, hangar solvents, and foam use areas on a closed general aviation field, plus what a lien and AUL search can and cannot establish about the parcel.Read article →
- Former Asbestos Products Plants and the Land RecordFiber, scrap, and buried demolition debris. What a lien and AUL search covers on a closed asbestos plant, and what a clean report cannot settle.Read article →
- Former Grain Elevators: Fumigants in the RecordLiquid grain fumigants reached shallow groundwater under a lot of small towns. What a lien and AUL search covers on an elevator lot, and why neighbors matter.Read article →
- Former Pulp and Paper Mills: What the Record HoldsBleaching chemistry, treatment lagoons, and a sludge disposal area that is usually its own parcel. What a lien and AUL search covers on a former mill site.Read article →
- Environmental Lien Searches in a 1031 ExchangeAn exchange runs on deadlines that do not extend for a recorded covenant. Why the lien and AUL search belongs in the identification window, on both sides.Read article →
- Environmental Liens on Condominium and Common PropertyA unit owner can be bound by a covenant recorded against the common area or the master tract. Which descriptions an environmental lien and AUL search has to cover.Read article →
- Former Battery Plants: Lead, Acid, and the RecordBattery making and battery breaking leave lead in shallow soil and a containment remedy. What a lien and AUL search covers on these sites, and what sits next door.Read article →
- Former Bulk Petroleum Terminals: What the Record HoldsTank farms and fuel distribution yards leave free product, a long agency file, and sometimes a well restriction next door. What a lien and AUL search covers.Read article →
- Former Drum Reconditioning Yards: Reading the RecordA yard that washed and resold steel drums inherited the waste of every industry shipping to it. What a lien and AUL search covers, and why party names matter.Read article →
- Former Meatpacking and Rendering Plants in the RecordAmmonia systems, wastewater lagoons, and application fields on a separate parcel. What a lien and AUL search covers on a former packing or rendering site.Read article →
- Former Manufactured Gas Plants: Coal Tar in the RecordGas holders, tar wells, and a utility successor nobody names. What a lien and AUL search covers on a former MGP site, and why the filings are usually modern.Read article →
- Remediation Access Easements in the Land RecordMonitoring wells, soil caps, and the right to walk in and sample them. What an access easement adds to a recorded covenant, and where the terms usually hide.Read article →
- Former Shooting Ranges: Lead and the Land RecordBerms, fall zones, and the club that leased the field. What a lien and AUL search covers on a closed range, and what a clean report cannot settle.Read article →
- Groundwater Use Restrictions in the Land RecordWell prohibitions, classification zones, and unrecorded agency orders. How a groundwater limit reaches a parcel, and where a lien and AUL search will find it.Read article →
- Former Printing Plants: Solvent History in the Land RecordPress wash solvents, ink waste, and floor drains that discharged below the slab. What a lien and AUL search covers when the operator was a tenant.Read article →
- Vapor Intrusion and Recorded Use RestrictionsVapor controls increasingly arrive as recorded obligations rather than one time cleanups. What the covenant requires, and what a records search can tell you.Read article →
- Former Military Base Property: Deed Restrictions on RecordLand transferred out of a closed base usually carries recorded use restrictions and government access rights. Where they live, and why depth of search matters.Read article →
- Former Tanneries: Environmental Lien and AUL Due DiligenceChrome liquors, beamhouse waste, and sludge spread on the yard. What a lien and AUL search on a former tannery parcel should cover, and where the chain breaks.Read article →
- All Appropriate Inquiries: What the Rule Actually RequiresThe Phase I report is the largest piece of All Appropriate Inquiries, not all of it. Which tasks belong to the buyer, and why the lien search is one of them.Read article →
- Former Textile Mills: Environmental Lien and AUL DiligenceDye houses, solvent degreasing, boiler fuel tanks, and sludge lagoons all leave records. What a lien and AUL search on a former mill parcel should cover.Read article →
- Former Ag Chemical Dealers and Grain ElevatorsFarm supply parcels carry fertilizer, pesticide, and fumigant history, and the records describing it are split between the county and the state. Searching both.Read article →
- Judicial Records in an Environmental Lien SearchHalf the search happens in courthouses, not the recorder. What a judicial review covers, why it runs on names, and what a docket hit does and does not mean.Read article →
- Former Salvage Yards: Scrap, Fluids, and the RecordAuto dismantling and scrap yards leave a predictable chemical history and an uneven paper trail. What gets recorded, what does not, and how to scope the search.Read article →
- Abatement and Demolition Liens: Not Quite EnvironmentalA municipal cleanup lien is not an environmental lien, and both turn up in the same index. How to tell them apart, and the three places a city charge can hide.Read article →
- Data Gaps in an Environmental Lien and AUL SearchASTM E1527-21 requires data gaps to be identified and their significance judged. Here is where records gaps come from and what an honest report says about them.Read article →
- Former Auto Body Shops: Solvents, Paint, and the RecordCollision shops ran solvents, paint waste, and in ground lifts for decades. What that history can leave in county land records, and why small parcels get skipped.Read article →
- Former Foundries: Sand, Slag, and the Land RecordsFoundry waste was used as free fill on site and off it, so the area of interest is often wider than the plant parcel. What the record can and cannot establish.Read article →
- Former Wood Treating Sites: Creosote and the RecordTreating yards affect acres rather than a spot, so the restrictions they leave behind are broad. What the land records hold on one, and what they do not.Read article →
- Voluntary Cleanup Programs: What Actually Gets RecordedA closure letter and a recorded covenant have different reach. What a state program files against the parcel, and who is supposed to do the filing.Read article →
- What an AUL Actually Requires the Owner to DoA use restriction is more than a list of prohibitions. It can carry maintenance, inspection, certification, and notice duties that pass to the next owner.Read article →
- Environmental Liens in Bankruptcy: What Stays RecordedA discharge addresses personal liability. It does not sweep the county index. How to read a distressed chain of title for what is still attached to the parcel.Read article →
- Former Metal Plating Shops: Chrome, Cyanide, and the RecordElectroplating leaves metals and solvents under the slab and almost nothing in the index. What a plating parcel puts in the land records, and what it does not.Read article →
- Former Orchards and Farmland: Arsenic, Lead, and the RecordDecades of pesticide use leave shallow residues and almost no paper trail. What former farmland puts in the land records, and what it does not.Read article →
- Rail Corridors and Yards: A Century of Recorded TracesRail land concentrates risk in yards and shops, and its title runs through a century of mergers. What the record holds, and why scope is a decision.Read article →
- When a Parcel Carrying an AUL Is Split or MergedA use limitation runs with the land, but which land? What happens to an AUL when a parcel is subdivided, and why the parent tract has to be searched.Read article →
- Former Landfills: Closure, Post-Closure, and the RecordClosed landfills carry decades of post-closure obligations. What closure records against the title, and why neighboring parcels need a search of their own.Read article →
- Former Machine Shops: TCE, Degreasers, and the RecordMetal shops used chlorinated degreasers for decades. What TCE leaves in the land records, and why industrial parcels need a chain of title check.Read article →
- Institutional Control Registries: Two Places to LookMany states publish a registry of sites carrying institutional controls. Why it never replaces the county land record, and how the two lists disagree.Read article →
- Multi-Site Deals: Environmental Lien and AUL Searches at ScaleHow to scope a portfolio records review: reconciling sites to parcels, ordering in one batch, triaging findings, and why county practice sets the pace.Read article →
- Tax-Foreclosed Parcels: Environmental Liens and AUL RecordsWhy a tax sale does not clear the environmental record, where the contaminating use sits in the chain, and which instruments to pull before bidding.Read article →
- Due Diligence Timing: When to Order the Lien and AUL SearchWhere the environmental lien and AUL search belongs in a 30-day diligence period, what can stretch the turnaround, and how to handle a closing that slips.Read article →
- Tenant Due Diligence: Why Leases Need a Lien and AUL SearchTenants can qualify for bona fide prospective purchaser protection, but only by doing their own inquiry. Where the lien and AUL search fits a leasehold.Read article →
- Dry Cleaner Sites: Small Shops, Long PlumesDry cleaner sites pair tiny footprints with long chlorinated solvent plumes. What PCE leaves in the land records, and why retail deals check first.Read article →
- The Lien Search in Your Phase I PracticeHow Phase I ESA firms handle the environmental lien and AUL records review: what E1527-21 expects, why county research is specialized, what to require.Read article →
- Environmental Covenants: How UECA Makes Them StickEnvironmental covenants are how risk-based cleanups bind future owners. How UECA makes them enforceable, and how a records search finds them.Read article →
- Buying a Former Gas Station? Read the Record FirstFormer gas stations carry UST histories: risk-based closures, deed notices, and state cleanup liens. Why the land records check comes first.Read article →
- Environmental Liens: What Lenders Need to KnowCERCLA's secured creditor exemption shields lenders from cleanup liability, not from collateral loss. Where lien and AUL searches fit in a loan file.Read article →
- Does Title Insurance Cover Environmental Liens?A title policy and an environmental lien search do different jobs. Policy exclusions, date-of-policy limits, and what ASTM E1527-21 actually asks for.Read article →
- Brownfield Redevelopment Starts in the Land RecordsBrownfield sites concentrate environmental liens and AULs. How cleanup closures put controls in the land records, and why redevelopment diligence starts there.Read article →
- Why 1980? The Story Behind the Lien Search DateWhy environmental lien and AUL searches start at 1980: CERCLA created modern cleanup liability, and the liens and controls in the land records date from it.Read article →
- Keeping Your BFPP Defense Alive After ClosingCERCLA liability protections come with continuing obligations (AUL compliance, reasonable steps, cooperation), plus the windfall lien, explained.Read article →
- REC, CREC, HREC: What Phase I ESA Findings MeanREC, CREC, and HREC under ASTM E1527-21, explained: how Phase I ESA findings are classified and how the environmental lien and AUL search informs the call.Read article →
- The Search Found an Environmental Lien or AUL: Now What?What to do when a lien and AUL search turns something up: read the instrument, confirm its current status, and weigh the paths deals actually take from there.Read article →
- How an Environmental Lien & AUL Search Is Actually PerformedInside a 1980 environmental lien and AUL search: how certified title abstractors reconstruct the deed chain, review the records, and what the report includes.Read article →
- Superlien States: When an Environmental Lien Beats the MortgageSome states give environmental cleanup liens priority over previously recorded mortgages. What superliens are, where they exist, and how lenders manage the risk.Read article →
- Phase I ESA User Responsibilities: The Lien & AUL SearchASTM E1527-21 assigns key Phase I ESA duties to the user, including the environmental lien and AUL title search. What Section 6 requires and how to comply.Read article →
- When Does a Phase I ESA Expire? The 180-Day Rule ExplainedHow long a Phase I ESA stays valid under ASTM E1527-21: the 180-day presumption, the one-year limit, and the five components that must be updated.Read article →
- Why Add a Chain of Title Search to Your Phase I ESA?How a supplemental chain of title search strengthens a Phase I ESA: past owners reveal past uses and support the historical research ASTM E1527-21 requires.Read article →
- Environmental Liens Explained: Who Files Them and How to Find ThemWhat environmental liens are, who files them, where they're recorded (including judicial records), and how an ASTM E1527-21 title search finds them.Read article →
- What Is an Activity and Use Limitation (AUL)? A Plain-English GuideActivity and Use Limitations (AULs) explained: what they are, common examples, where they're recorded, and how ASTM E1527-21 requires them to be searched.Read article →
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