Should you or your client be involved in the purchase or disposal of residential property you may be aware of the Law Society’s “Contaminated Land Warning Card” issued in 2001. This makes clear that all solicitors must consider contamination on every property transaction.
A preliminary environmental search such as an Envirosearch Residential report should therefore be the first step. If the preliminary environmental search reports that ‘Further Action’ is required, this may identify a potential risk of contamination. If further enquiries to the Local Authority cannot assist in resolving this issue, the next step would be to commission a soil test.
Depending on the size of the garden area, this usually involves the hand excavation of no more than two trial holes to a depth of up to one metre, from each of which two soil samples are collected for chemical testing in order to identify any contaminants of concern which may present a risk to human health.
For properties with potentially more serious concerns from underground tanks or landfills, it may be necessary to drill boreholes to obtain deeper soil samples and establish monitoring wells for gas and groundwater monitoring. This can usually be facilitated by the use of either hand held motor driven window sampling or small window sampling rigs capable of entering areas where access is tight.
Wilbourn Associates offer a quick and efficient service for garden investigations and use only UKAS accredited laboratories which have MCERTS accredited testing methods for soil. We also apply the same strict protocols as we use on more complex commercial sites and care is always taken to leave the gardens in a tidy condition upon completion.
Should the soil testing identify contaminants we would work closely with you and your client to establish the best course of action, but remedial treatment is usually only required on rare occasions.
Contact us
For more information or to obtain a price for our expert services, please contact a member of our environmental surveying team on 0114 243 5500.