How to Avoid Buying Problems During Land Acquisition
Are you looking for a sizeable plot of land so that you can progress with a major, commercial project? You may want to use this land for a specific purpose and must be sure that it will not only live up to your expectations from a practical perspective but from an environmental and safety angle as well. Of course, you should never proceed without being sure of your ground, quite literally, and will need to bring in an expert to help you uncover what's below your feet. How should you proceed?
Revealing Problems
While a specific plot of land may look very innocuous, what lies below the surface can hide a chequered past. If you plan to use it for growing purposes, harvesting or other agricultural needs, you have to be particularly careful, but you also have to look out for hazards that could affect any building or installation where people are present.
Industrial Run-Off
For example, was this land used at any time in its past for industrial purposes? Furthermore, is the land adjacent to an area that was used in this way or may have been impacted by poor management? If so, dangerous chemicals could have leached into the ground to leave a harmful residue that would certainly affect the water table beneath and the ability of the soil to promote agriculture.
Toxic Pesticides
If the land was used for agricultural purposes in the past, then it is possible that the owners used pesticides to kill certain organisms to help them with their productivity. Unfortunately, these pesticides can be harmful to plants and animals other than the species that they are trying to deal with and, once again, long-term damage may have been caused to the ecosystem through overuse.
Domestic Waste
Sometimes, domestic waste will be dumped in areas that have been otherwise vacant and some of this material may lurk underneath the surface. In these situations, you will often find electronics or unwanted equipment that can hide chemicals which can be harmful to an agricultural process.
Initiating a Survey
Before you make an offer to buy this land, you should bring in experts to do an environmental assessment of the soil so that they can reveal any hazards ahead of time. Much will depend on the scale of any problem they find, but you may be able to take steps to remove any threat and can include the associated costs in your budgeting.
