When a person inherits contaminated property the costs of and responsibilities of cleaning it up can be immense. Inheriting contaminated property is known as “toxic succession,” and sometimes the environmental liabilities might end up costing the heir more than the property is worth. The best remedy should be done before the property is even passed to the heir, but often times people might not be aware of the environmental liabilities that the property possesses. Some options that this article discusses include placing the property into a trust to try to protect the beneficiary from liability. Property owners might also want to consider getting insurance to cover any future liability once a contamination is found. These are issues that can lead to costly litigation and clean-up costs so it is always important to carefully plan ahead.
See Paul Sullivan, Contaminated Property Makes for Costly Inheritance, The New York Times, February 19, 2016.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse for bringing this article to my attention.
