An "environmental lawyer" is typically an attorney with a practice that focuses on environmental issues. These issues can include air pollution, toxic waste, soil contamination, and toxic injury matters. While environmental lawyers may participate in commercial real estate closings, they historically have had little involvement with home closings. However, that's changing as more and more home closings require the assistance of an environmental attorney.

Real estate closings are becoming less "routine" and more complicated. Most changes in the process are changes that relate to environmental obligations.

Issues that were unheard of just several years ago can monopolize and even kill an otherwise routine transaction. And dead transactions help no one. This is why people who are closing on real estate with environmental challenges may be best served by hiring an environmental lawyer for the closing and the pre-closing work.

For example, let's say you're purchasing a single family home and may one day want to build an extra room, or perhaps a garage. No big deal, as long as set back and similar land use regulations will not be crossed. Right? Not necessarily. The extra room may implicate wetlands issues. If you are in certain parts of the country , it may also touch on coastal regulations and other unique regulatory schemes -- issues that environmental lawyers are used to handling.

New houses have their own concerns. There are issues concerning off site environmental hazards. Are you near a toxic site? Are you near a polluting factory?

Then there is the issue of on-site hazards. When do you need to inquire about the sub-terrain? How are the soils? Was this recently an orchard with heavy amounts of pesticides and arsenic? Is this near an industrial facility? Is a factory nearby, or, even more interestingly, was a factory nearby 60 years ago ? If so, then what?

In many areas, there is now an interest in redeveloping old industrial sites, the so called "brownfields" movement. If the home is on a former industrial site, what questions do you need to ask? Who will be responsible if something that was supposed to be cleaned up was not cleaned up?

Well water issues have been around forever. But now, some jurisdictions require testing of most residential wells before closing, and this list of places requiring this is sure to increase. What happens when sample results reflect a problem? We do not want to kill the deal -- that helps no one. So the questions becomes: How do you save the deal, and protect yourself at the same time?

There are also the septic tank issues. Septic systems are becoming more complex than before. And it may be difficult to repair failing systems in those many parts of the country that suffer from region-wide failing systems.

The point of all of this is that it's becoming harder to find routine, unexceptional, "run-of-the-mill" real estate closings. With ever increasing frequency, closings are becoming contingent on environmental issues. This means that brokers and real estate attorneys need to become well acquainted with the kinds of issues that have already been touched upon in this article. While an increased understanding of environmental issues is needed, we cannot expect brokers and real estate lawyers to become environmental experts. Routine environmental considerations have always fallen within the province of the brokers or the real estate attorney, and always will in the future.

However, if a transaction concerns complicated and unique environmental legal issues, they should be addressed by an environmental lawyer.

Environmental attorneys are familiar with these kinds of issues. They have confronted them for years in the context of commercial and industrial property closings, as well as brownfields transactions. Simply stated, environmental lawyers can save a deal with an environmental challenge because they are accustomed to the challenge and will not be "scared away" by it. In addition, an environmental lawyer is likely to already have a list of competent environmental specialists that can be called upon to address unique challenges.

For example, a wetlands legal issue may require special language in the real estate contract, perhaps a narrowly tailored sales contingency. This will be drafted by the lawyer. However, a wetlands consultant may also be required to delineate the wetlands area, and perhaps to apply for a wetlands permit. An experienced environmental lawyer will likely know who the "right" consultant is for the particular challenge at hand.

Environmental issues are frequently becoming a factor in home closings. When an environmental issue surfaces, consider using the services of an environmental lawyer to either do the closing, or provide assistance in the process.

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