Transaction Screen Assessment

An ASTM Practice E1528-14 Standard Practice for Limited Environmental Due Diligence, or Transaction Screen Assessment (TSA) is quick-turnaround, inexpensive, and effective approach to assess environmental risk of a property. Transaction Screens are usually conducted for commercial properties, residential developments, agricultural properties, and industrial properties for real estate transactions or for bank refinancing. The purpose of this practice is to define good commercial and customary practice in the United States of America for conducting a Transaction Screen Assessment for a parcel of commercial real estate where the User wishes to conduct limited environmental due diligence (less than a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment). If the driving force behind the environmental due diligence is a desire to qualify for one of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) Landowner Liability Protections (LLPs), this practice should not be applied. Instead, the ASTM Practice E 1527-13 for Environmental Site Assessments – Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process – shall be used. This practice is intended for use on a voluntary basis by parties who wish to assess the environmental condition of commercial real estate where a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is, initially, deemed to be unnecessary by the user and the parties do not seek CERCLA LLPs. This practice is intended primarily as a commercially prudent or reasonable approach to conducting an inquiry designed to identify potential environmental concerns in connection with a property.