All appropriate inquiries

Definition

The pre-purchase investigation that decides whether a buyer inherits somebody else's solvent.

Why It Matters

A coin laundry is outside the dry-cleaner rule twice over, since that rule reaches only facilities using perchloroethylene and exempts coin-operated machines by name. The building is the exposure. Federal cleanup law makes the owner of a contaminated site liable for the cost of removal, and the defense that saves a buyer has two conditions: all disposal happened before the buyer acquired the property, and the buyer made all appropriate inquiries into previous ownership and uses to accepted commercial standards. Even a qualifying buyer can carry a lien on the property for unrecovered costs. Florida makes the point sharply: a site's eligibility for its cleanup fund is unaffected by any conveyance, so a sale neither earns eligibility nor loses it.