It is important to understand the difference between remediation and abatement when dealing with hazardous waste. If you are not sure, here are some definitions for each type of action:
Remediation is a process by which an environmental hazard or nuisance contamination is removed or reduced so that it no longer poses a threat to public health or the environment.
-Abatement refers to measures taken in response to an emergency, such as firefighting efforts.
Abatement, in the context of construction law, refers to a reduction or discount on an amount owed.
For example, if you are leasing out an apartment building and one of your leaseholders owes you $2000 for rent but is expecting to be paid unemployment insurance by his new employer during that time period, then because he will not have the full $2000 to pay you, his rent check will be abated.
Abatement of an amount does not mean that the person is off the hook for it - they owe you and still have a responsibility to repay or replace what remains owed.
In this case, because there was no insurance payment coming in from the new employer during that time, we would expect to receive the abated rent check and then another one for $2000 when he starts earning again.
Another example of abatement is in a construction contract scenario where there has been an unforeseen circumstance such as poor weather or delays at site which have caused the project to not be completed by its original deadline.
This would entitle the contractor to abatement of his fee, but only if he had finished all other aspects of the contract to a satisfactory standard and within an agreed time frame (i.e., If you did not complete everything on your end even though we were delayed by bad weather, then no - I would have expected full payment for what was done).Abatement can also go the other way too - if something has been paid for in full, but unnecessary (such as a change order that was not approved), then this overpayment must be abated.
For example, let's say you were hired to build an office building and it is ready to be occupied by employees who need to work in it. You have finished the job on time, but you were paid $500,000 for the entire contract when your budget was $400,000. The owner of the building has not yet realized that they overpaid and still expects to get billed for an extra $100k (even though this is what he told you up front ). In this case, you would have to abate the $100k overpayment.