You’re here because you need an SBA Environmental Reliance Letter — most likely because you just had a Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment done and now you’re submitting it to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for approval. Maybe you work for a bank or other lender and don’t do this often. End users of Phase 1 ESAs hardly ever ask for reliance letters themselves, so the request usually lands on someone who has never produced one. No worries — we’re here to help.
Let’s get you what you need.
You can download a blank SBA Reliance Letter Template HERE.
It’s a zip file of a Word document we cleaned up and color-coded so you know who fills in what, and where, on the form. While you’re here, take a moment to learn what a reliance letter is and why lenders need one.
Still deciding which environmental product your deal requires? Start with our pillar guide: is the RSRA the new Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment? It explains when a lighter-weight Record Search with Risk Assessment satisfies the SBA and when you need a full Phase 1 ESA.
What Is an SBA Environmental Reliance Letter?
A reliance letter is a document that accompanies an environmental report and allows a named third party to “rely” on the findings inside it. Suppose you have a Phase 1 ESA done on a property you’d like to purchase. Before we start, we’ll have you sign paperwork that says clearly the report we produce is for you — the person paying us — and that simply handing it to someone else does not give them the right to rely on our findings. No third party who hasn’t signed our contract and paid us can lean on the conclusions we reached.
That’s where an SBA Environmental Reliance Letter comes in: it legally extends our findings to a party who wasn’t on the original contract — most often the SBA itself.
Environmental Liability Is Expensive
We work hard for our clients, but people who are not our clients cannot sue us for malpractice if they weren’t party to the original transaction. If they could, no environmental consultant would ever find insurance, because we’d be defending ourselves against anyone who got their hands on a report. Our insurance covers us for $5 Million in Errors and Omissions, and it protects us indefinitely — so if a 20-year-old report is later found to be wrong in some material way we should have caught, our insurer still stands behind it. This is standard practice; you won’t find a reputable consultant whose contract doesn’t include that clause.
That clause is precisely why reliance letters exist — the protection it gives us is the same protection a lender wants to borrow.
How SBA Reliance Letters Work
Typically, when we’re engaged on an SBA project, it’s the bank assembling the package — not the SBA itself — that hires us. The SBA is underwriting the loan, but it didn’t start the process. So if the consultant makes an error or omission, the SBA wants to hold that consultant accountable, and the only way it can is by obtaining a signed reliance letter from the consultant who produced the report.
The document fits into the rest of the SBA paperwork stack. The deal usually opens with an SBA environmental questionnaire that screens the property type up front, and the underlying work follows the SBA’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP 50 10 8). The reliance letter is the last link in that chain — the piece that lets the SBA stand behind a report it didn’t directly commission.
Are There Non-SBA Reliance Letters?
Absolutely. You can download a Non-SBA Reliance Letter Template here. Smart lenders recognize when they’re exposed to environmental liability and require reliance letters from environmental professionals as a matter of course.
Most of the time the lender funding the loan is the client, so there’s no reason to issue a Non-SBA Reliance Letter. But “stuff happens.” Sometimes a bank hires us, the loan falls through, and the borrower takes our Phase 1 ESA to a different bank. That new lender wasn’t party to our contract, so it can’t rely on the report — and neither can the borrower, who never signed it. A Non-SBA Reliance Letter bridges that gap.
Is There Any Cost to Obtaining a Reliance Letter?
For SBA loans, there typically is no cost — the turnaround between the work and the loan is short, and the letter is part of the process. For a Non-SBA Reliance Letter, the answer is almost always “yes.” By the time groups approach us, more time has passed and we’re taking on additional risk by indemnifying parties who weren’t part of the original transaction, so we typically charge a few hundred dollars for the paperwork and added insurance exposure.
Download an SBA Environmental Reliance Letter Example
Absolutely. You can download an SBA Reliance Letter example by clicking here.
This example shows exactly how the finished document should look (it’s password protected, so mark up your own copy, not ours). To see how the underlying report is formatted before you order, you can also review our SBA RSRA template.
When a Phase 1 ESA Goes Wrong
Have you ever heard of a Phase 1 ESA going wrong, where the reliance letter — or the lack of one — was the deciding factor? Absolutely. This is a great story (if you weren’t a party to it) from an environmental lawyer about how a Phase 1 ESA can go sideways, and badly so.
In the end, reliance letters are about liability protection and risk mitigation. The minutes it takes to request one are nothing compared to discovering, after closing, that nobody could stand behind the report.
What to Expect on Pricing
For most SBA-backed transactions, the reliance letter rides along with the environmental work at no separate charge — the cost you budget for is the report itself. A Record Search with Risk Assessment (RSRA) is an $850 flat fee with a roughly five-business-day turnaround (48-hour rush available), delivered nationwide and written to SBA SOP 50 10 8. A basic desktop screen runs $250, a database package is $375–$415, and a full Phase 1 ESA — adding the on-site visit, ASTM E1527-21 compliance, and All Appropriate Inquiry liability protection — runs $2,200–$4,000 over two to three weeks. Non-SBA reliance letters requested after the fact add a few hundred dollars.
A3 Environmental Consultants works across the country, but we know our home turf especially well. On a recent SBA-backed acquisition in Naperville, Illinois (41.7508°N, 88.1535°W), a lender only realized at the closing table that the SBA needed a signed reliance letter naming the agency. Because the Phase 1 ESA was already ours, we turned the reliance letter around the same day and the 7(a) loan closed on schedule — reviewed by Alisa Allen, P.G.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an SBA Environmental Reliance Letter?
It is a document that accompanies an environmental report and legally extends the findings to a named third party — most often the Small Business Administration — who was not party to the original contract. Without it, only the client who hired and paid the consultant can rely on the report, so the SBA could not hold the consultant accountable for an error or omission.
Does an SBA Environmental Reliance Letter cost extra?
For SBA loans, there is typically no additional cost — the letter is part of the normal process. A Non-SBA Reliance Letter requested later almost always carries an extra charge of a few hundred dollars, because more time has passed and we are indemnifying a party who wasn’t in the original transaction.
What is the difference between an SBA and a Non-SBA reliance letter?
An SBA reliance letter names the Small Business Administration as the relying party on an SBA-backed loan. A Non-SBA reliance letter extends the report’s findings to a different lender or borrower — for example, when a loan falls through and the borrower takes the existing Phase 1 ESA to a new bank.
What SBA standard governs the underlying environmental work?
SBA environmental due diligence follows the agency’s Standard Operating Procedure, current as of SOP 50 10 8, effective June 1, 2025 (technical updates effective March 1, 2026). We track each revision so your report — and the reliance letter with it — always matches the version your lender is using.
Order Your RSRA
Need an environmental report, a reliance letter, or testing on a property you own or want to buy? The fastest place to start is our $850 Record Search with Risk Assessment — a 5-day, flat-fee, SBA-approved screen delivered nationwide, with 48-hour rush available. We meet or exceed ASTM Standards on any commercial or industrial property, and our reports satisfy all lenders and agencies, including the SBA, HUD, and USDA. Call us at (888) 405-1742 or email Info@A3E.com.
We Fix Gnarly Environmental Problems
Reviewed by Alisa Allen, P.G., founder of A3 Environmental Consultants.
