Sector
Conveyancing
Actionable Climate Insights to keep Transactions Moving
Climate change is perhaps the single biggest factor affecting future property asset values. Lenders and insurers have, for many years now, scrutinised transactions that could affect the asset security and claim volumes, especially for flood risk. This impacts the ability to economically insure and therefore to lend.
This is now being extended to heat stress, with growing concern about stranded assets that will become uneconomic to retrofit to mitigate the effects of heat and also become more energy efficient.
Intro
Delivering Richer Climate Insights for Property Transactions
There is a clear Legal driver: heat is a recognised legal risk for employers, who must provide a reasonable working temperature and assess temperature-related risks under health and safety law. In the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, employers must provide a reasonable indoor temperature. In the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999: employers must assess temperature risks and put appropriate controls in place.
The Law Society Practice Note identifies Heat Stress as a significant physical climate risk that can impact the property, placing new requirements on conveyancing to satisfy these impacts on behalf of their client.
Solicitors and conveyancers cannot comment professionally on the risk, so they need better information to signpost clients to next steps.
This means they must be able to trust and rely on the risk information presented to them, supported by guidance.
Terra IQ works with environmental insights providers and property search companies to deliver data layers that add more context to climate risks. In this way, actionable insights allow the client to make an informed decision ahead of finalising the transaction.