In the fast-paced world of property transactions, conveyancers and solicitors face the challenge of ensuring that every decision made is both informed and accurate. 

Among the myriad of decisions is the selection of an appropriate environmental risk assessment, a critical factor that can influence the overall success of a property deal. However, not all assessments are created equal. The depth and accuracy of an environmental risk assessment can vary significantly depending on the level of expertise and experience involved. The more environmental consultant involvement, the more precise the risk assessment, ultimately benefiting all parties involved. We will explore why relying on expert insights from environmental consultants is paramount to reducing risks and ensuring the most accurate outcomes.

The value of environmental expertise

Environmental risk assessments are not just routine checks; they are comprehensive evaluations that can help identify risks such as flooding, contamination, subsidence, and other environmental hazards that could affect a property’s value or usability. For conveyancers and solicitors, these assessments are essential to ensure that their clients are fully informed about any potential risks associated with the property they are purchasing. However, not all assessments provide the same level of detail or accuracy.

Environmental consultants bring years of experience and specialised knowledge to the table, allowing them to interpret data in ways that automated systems simply cannot. The more expert involvement, the higher the degree of accuracy in identifying and evaluating risks.

Understanding Landmark’s three tiers of risk assessment

At our parent company Landmark, we offer three tiers of risk assessment, each varying in the level of expert involvement and data analysis:

1. Professional Opinion: This is the highest level of accuracy available. When a full data assessment indicates a high risk, the report is referred to Landmark’s environmental consultants for a professional opinion. This ensures that every aspect of the risk is thoroughly evaluated, and where possible, the risk outcome may be downgraded based on the consultant’s expertise and methodology. This tier is particularly valuable in complex cases where the stakes are high, providing peace of mind that no stone has been left unturned. It ensures that the risk evaluation is not solely reliant on automated data but also benefits from expert interpretation and judgment.
2. Full Assessment: This tier offers a data-driven assessment with an automated outcome. It still provides a robust evaluation that negates the need for ancillary reports and for many environmental risks, this represents the highest level of assessment available. For conveyancers, this option often provides a balance between cost and comprehensiveness but does not offer the same level of risk mitigation as the Professional Opinion.
3. Alert Assessment: The Alert Assessment is a high-level summary of any potential risks identified from the data within the search area. This assessment highlights possible risks that may be relevant to the property, prompting further investigation. While this tier offers a quick overview, it is less detailed and may require follow-up reports for a more accurate risk evaluation.

The benefits of consultant involvement

Case study introduction

To illustrate the importance of expert involvement in environmental risk assessments, consider the case of a residential property located in a flood-prone area. Initially, an automated assessment flagged the property as high-risk, which could have jeopardised the transaction. However, after the report was referred for a Professional Opinion, Landmark’s environmental consultants conducted a thorough review. Their expert analysis revealed that the actual risk was significantly lower than initially indicated, allowing the transaction to proceed with confidence. By involving consultants from the outset, conveyancers and solicitors can provide their clients with more accurate information, potentially saving time and money.

Download the Product Comparison Matrix and Toolkit

Choosing the right level of environmental risk assessment can have a significant impact on your property transactions. To help you make the best decision, we invite you to download and review the product comparison matrix and toolkit. These resources will help you make informed decisions about which assessments to order, ensuring that you provide the best possible service to your clients.

Download Product Comparison

Download Product Toolkit

Don’t leave your decisions to chance—rely on Landmark’s 30 years of expertise and experience to keep your transaction moving.

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The original version of this article was originally published by Landmark Information Group. For more information from the full range of Environmental Insights remastered products available top order from OneSearch, click here.

Environmental risks play a crucial role in property transactions, and as conveyancers and solicitors, conducting thorough environmental searches is key to safeguarding your clients’ interests. 

Our parent company Landmark has long been the trusted provider of comprehensive environmental search reports. Now, with their enhanced residential product portfolio, we cover all environmental risks included in every Landmark residential report—allowing you to choose the report best suited to you, from basic identification to full expert analysis.

In addition to providing a more flexible and thorough assessment, we’re excited to announce two major improvements: the inclusion of climate change modules in the Landmark’s EnviroSearch and RiskView reports, plus an innovative approach to coal risk assessment. These advancements ensure that you’re equipped to handle today’s environmental challenges more effectively than ever.

The key environmental risks every conveyancer should consider:

• Contaminated Land
• Flood
• Coal Mining
• Climate Change
• Planning
• Ground Stability
• Radon
• Energy & Infrastructure
• Planning Constraints

These risks can significantly impact property value, insurability and enjoyment of living in, what might be, your dream home. Landmark’s enhanced portfolio provides reports tailored to different levels of risk assessment, giving conveyancers the flexibility to choose the depth of analysis that best fits their needs.

Introducing the ‘coal revolution’: the new way of searching for coal risk

One of the most significant improvements in the new product line-up is the reimagined approach to coal risk assessments. With Landmark’s coal revolution, you can expect faster, more accurate and more comprehensive coal risk assessments. The symbiosis between alert and full assessments in the reports, combined with the added security of an equivalent to a No Search Required Certificate with £1 million indemnity, sets a new industry standard for coal mining risk assessments.

Climate Change: now included in EnviroSearch and RiskView

Landmark’s enhanced residential product portfolio: A closer look

Landmark’s enhanced suite of products is designed to meet the varied needs of conveyancers, from basic checks to detailed assessments. The three key products in this portfolio are:

• Homecheck Residential: This report provides an initial assessment across all key risks, identifying potential issues that may require further investigation. It offers an overview that helps you determine if more in-depth analysis is necessary and whether a supplementary report is needed.
• EnviroSearch Residential: This report offers a more detailed assessment, including the newly added climate change module. It provides a breakdown of risks and a full evaluation of each environmental peril, perfect for when more certainty is needed.
• RiskView Residential: The most comprehensive product, RiskView Residential, includes full data assessments and expert analysis through Landmark’s environmental consultants. With the addition of the climate change module, this product delivers the highest level of accuracy and foresight, ensuring that all risks are meticulously evaluated.

Using Flood Risk as an example: the same site, different experience

To demonstrate how these products differ in practice, let’s look at a typical scenario involving flood risk assessment:

Scenario: A Homebuyer has had their offer accepted and is eagerly waiting to arrange their move in date. Before this is possible, their conveyancer is reviewing their Environmental Search to see if there are any concerns to flag to the Homebuyer.

• Homecheck Residential: The report identifies that the property is in a flood-prone area, prompting further investigation. The assessment highlights potential risks but does not provide detailed specifics.

Report outcome – Identified

• EnviroSearch Residential: This report offers a full flood assessment, breaking down the risk by specific perils such as River, Coastal, Surface Water, and Groundwater. In this case, a high risk for surface water flooding is identified, and recommendations are provided, including whether the site is insurable under standard terms. This product also includes the climate change module, offering insights into how future environmental changes might impact the property from flooding.

Report Outcome – Further Action

• RiskView Residential: The RiskView report identifies the high risk of surface water flooding and refers the case to Landmark’s environmental consultants for expert evaluation. The consultants determine that the high-risk area is limited to an adjacent road, allowing them to downgrade the overall flood risk and provide a “Passed” outcome. Additionally, the climate change module helps evaluate long-term impacts, offering an even more comprehensive risk profile for the property and confirms the risk doesn’t worsen over time.

Report Outcome – Passed

Clarity & confidence: key benefits

These enhanced residential products offer the most comprehensive environmental reports on the market, presented in a format that’s easy to use and understand. Key benefits include:

• Comprehensive Coverage: Every report covers all key environmental risks, from coal mining to planning and everything in between, ensuring thorough due diligence.
• Clear Risk Assessment: The user-friendly format makes it easy for conveyancers and clients to understand the environmental risks and how they have been assessed.
• Enhanced Usability: The reports retain a fixed structure to keep them familiar from one case to the next. The intuitive layout and navigation throughout make locating information straightforward.
• Assessment Options: You can choose the level of detail required, with options ranging from basic checks to full expert analysis, including new features like the new innovative coal alert.

Comprehensive due diligence, made easy

Landmark’s new portfolio empowers you to provide your clients with the highest level of due diligence, helping them make informed decisions and avoid unpleasant surprises down the line. By addressing all key environmental risks in one report, you can confidently manage the complexities of environmental due diligence with ease.

Your next step

To learn more about how Landmark’s enhanced residential products and streamline your conveyancing process, download and review the Product Comparison Matrix and Toolkit today. These resources provide a side-by-side comparison of the different levels of risk assessment available, helping you make the best choice for your clients.

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The original version of this article was originally published by Landmark Information Group. For more information from the full range of Environmental Insights remastered products available from OneSearch, click here.

Environmental insights are changing!

Our parent company Landmark Information Group are thrilled to share the launch of a remastered range of residential environmental search reports specifically designed to help you feel confident with search results, spend less time interpreting data and more time delivering excellent customer service.

Environmental Insights Remastered

Landmark’s remastered reports will still contain unmatched data and renowned in-house expert support but now with greater clarity, helping you navigate the most complex transactions, seamlessly.

Remastered content and design, led by conveyancers 

To support these latest updates, Landmark engaged with over 200 residential conveyancers, from high street to multi practice firms; the invaluable feedback they provided together with Landmark’s 30 years of experience in property and land data, has allowed Landmark to remaster and shape environmental reports that properly satisfy the need for readability, comprehension and expediency. 

Comprehensive due diligence, made easy

• New and upgraded risk modules to ensure we provide not only the most comprehensive reports in the market but the simplest way to convey environmental risk.
• Visually enhanced front pages – providing greater transparency for conveyancers to save valuable time.
• New executive summary pages for both conveyancers and homebuyers to understand quickly and easily which risks are relevant for that location and what to do next.
• Homebuyer guidance – to ensure your clients understand the report context. 

Remastered Delivery 

From the research Landmark carried out, PDF delivery is still extremely popular, but there was an awareness that digital formats will be the future moving forward. To support and prepare conveyancers with this transition Landmark’s remastered reports will be digitally enabled, giving choice on how you want to receive environmental insight information in the future.

To view the remastered catalogue, click the related products links below.

In July 2024, OneSearch’s parent company, Landmark Information Group, interviewed 100 residential property solicitors and conveyancers in England, Scotland, and Wales.

Together, we asked about artificial intelligence, digital transformation, legislative changes, upfront information, and much more.

The responses shaped our new Market Research Report – ‘Residential Conveyancing: Looking ahead to 2025’ – which covers their challenges, concerns, priorities, and predictions for the coming year.

Find out what they said and download the report.

Our parent company Landmark’s latest Residential Property Trends Report for Q3 2024 is now available. This thorough analysis explores the property transaction landscape in England, Scotland and Wales, offering valuable insights into key market dynamics, including listings, SSTC/SSTM, searches ordered and completions.

A mixed picture of cautious optimism 

The residential market in Q3 2024 reveals a mixed landscape, showing a 6% increase in listings compared to Q3 2019 in England and Wales. However, this positive trend is overshadowed with completion volumes 42% lower in Q3 ‘24 vs Q3 ‘19, indicating continued challenges of progressing demand within the market. 

Ongoing external economic and political turbulence is still causing affordability constraints and buyer caution, as home-movers pause ahead of the Budget in the hope of more favourable interest rates. Many buyers are taking a wait-and-see approach, but there could be signs of potential recovery in Q4, especially if political and economic factors continue to stabilise. 

Ongoing inefficiencies in home buying and selling also hinder the process, with Scotland – which has a more streamlined transaction process – showing healthier completions than England and Wales. While both markets saw a 6% increase in listings, Scotland experienced only a 13% drop in completion rates since 2019, compared to a 42% drop in England and Wales. 

Other key findings from Q3 ‘24 include: 

• In England, Wales and Scotland, listing volumes were up 6% in Q3 ‘24 vs Q3 ‘19.  
• In England, SSTC volumes in Q3 ‘24 were down 37% when compared to Q3 ‘19 volumes. In Scotland, SSTM levels were down 23% in Q3 ‘24 vs Q3 ‘19. 
• In England and Wales, completions have fallen 42% vs Q3 2019. In Scotland, completions were down just 13% vs Q3 2019. 

Download the report to discover the latest trends impacting the residential sector in Q3 2024. 

As we kick off this year’s National Customer Service Week, we’re excited to introduce our new blog series, ‘Meet the Team’. At OneSearch, we believe that the key to exceptional service lies in the people behind our brand. In this series, we’ll delve into the stories and insights of our dedicated team members, showcasing the people that make us who we are – from Account Managers to Customer Service, Data experts to Road Agents, you’ll discover the individuals who make a difference every day.

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John Margett, OneSearch’s Client Relationship Manager, has some of the liveliest recommendations you’re ever likely to read on LinkedIn. He also has something you wouldn’t expect. A degree from a city he’s never been to.

Intrigued, we recently sat down with John to find out a little more about the man who one former colleague describes as “a gentleman of the phone and a dog with a bone.” In a fascinating chat, John talked us through his upbringing, shared his philosophy for building relationships and described his dream day, à la Off Menu podcast. But first…

Do you remember the 2017 Oscars?

The one where Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway opened the wrong envelope and for two minutes and 23 seconds La La Land beat Moonlight to the gong for Best Picture.

Most of the world wondered how on earth something like that could go wrong. Not John. Because when you’ve been involved in awards ceremonies, you know just how real the risk of an “Envelopegate” can be.

Before joining OneSearch, John was a project manager for Charlton Grant, the producer of Modern Law Magazine. He would help organise events such as the Modern Law Conveyancing Awards.

On the night of the awards ceremony, it was John’s role to hand out the ‘Highly Commended’ certificates while the award winners were taking the stage. His timing had to be spot on. He had to make sure the right company received the right certificate before the next award was announced. Not easy to do when guests have altered the seating plan or taken themselves off to the bar.

“You saw the table plan in front of you,” John recalls, “but quite a few had taken off the little table number on the stand. And the first one I went to, the company weren’t there. So I had to dash back to put the certificate back and get the next one ready to go.”

 Running back and forth, those Monday night 7-a-side football sessions proved their worth.

Yorkshire born and Yorkshire bred

John grew up in Thirsk, wanting to be the next Bryan Robson. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite blessed with the talent.” Both his parents were teachers and, for four years, his father taught him English. What was that like? Did he see his dad differently at school?

“He was just his natural self. I just had to remember to call him ‘Sir’ rather than ‘Dad’. But he did have to ask me first if I would be okay with him teaching me.”

John now lives in Stone, in Staffordshire. When he goes back to Thirsk, he realises how lucky he was growing up where he did, with the family he had and the people he knew. “Looking back now, one thing which made me so happy was the friendships I made during that time.”

It was a carefree childhood. But you get the feeling John would have made friends wherever he was. It’s something he excels at.

Making friends for a living

John has been with OneSearch for 7 and a half years. What he loves is getting out and about and seeing clients face to face. Getting to know their needs as a company, but also getting to know them as people.

“Microsoft Teams is great, especially for people who are a long way off. But when you’ve got that time on a face-to-face appointment, you get to know them much, much better. You see the body language more easily. You really get to know what their needs are.”

With a degree in Communication Processes (graduating from what is now the University of Lincoln but was then the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside – based in Hull, not Lincoln) and a 27-year career in account management and business development under his belt, what would John say is the secret to building relationships?

Simply put, it’s about being nice to people.

“If you’re nice to somebody, if you listen to them and you’re interested in them, the chances are they’ll be nice to you and interested in you. That’s when a two-way conversation gets going and that’s how you build a relationship.”

How did John become a people person?

Anyone who has had the pleasure of speaking with John will know how personable he is. How effortlessly he builds rapport. But as an adolescent, he was relatively shy. So how did his confidence grow?

By doing things out of his comfort zone:

• Going on school language exchanges. A French exchange in Calais when he was 13 and a German exchange in Eislingen, near Stuttgart, the following year. The first of many such trips and the start of lifelong friendships.
• Trying out for the school play – playing parts such as Benjamin in Animal Farm and Les, the lollipop man, in Willy Russell’s Our Day Out, among others.
• Taking all sorts of one-day courses. For instance, he would join up with an orchestra for a day’s rehearsal and then play the violin in a concert at Ripon Cathedral the same evening.

John also has fond memories of his time at university. The friends for life he met. Joining the drama society and playing in the orchestra at neighbouring Hull University – not to mention the three summers he spent working as a music teacher and counsellor at a boys’ summer camp in Maryland, USA.

But what really stands out is when John did some work experience at the Tourist Information Centre in Northallerton. He was 15. All the other volunteers were retired. When the Head of the Centre reported back to John’s school, he commended him for his ability to raise and hold conversations with anybody of any age.

It’s an ability that has stood John in good stead ever since.

Like father, like daughter

John has his parents to thank for encouraging him to try new things. “Sadly, we lost Mum four years ago. I miss her terribly and will be forever blessed with the many fond memories I have of her. Dad continues to be an inspiration. I’m so grateful to them both for everything.”

A father to a teenager himself, now John’s the one doing the encouraging. 13-year-old daughter Isla is just back from her first school trip to France. She has taken to the stage. And, like her dad, she enjoys playing the piano, although her repertoire is more Taylor Swift than Clementi or Beethoven.

One thing father and daughter do have in common, though, is they both like the atmosphere at Manchester United Women’s matches..

John has a love of women’s sport in general. He traces his interest back to a particular tournament: the Women’s World Cup in Canada in 2015. The BBC was showing it on TV.

“I just had this epiphany moment. I lived in Wimbledon for a while and loved going to the Wimbledon Championships to watch men’s and women’s tennis equally. I’m a big fan of both men’s and women’s tennis. Why wasn’t I doing that with football? So I watched the 2015 World Cup and the Lionesses did really well. They were very unlucky not to get through to the final.”

Since then, John has loved seeing how much women’s sport has grown. He follows it just as much as men’s sport and has been to watch the Lionesses, Manchester United Women, and England women’s rugby team, the Red Roses. “I’m really happy to see the trajectory that women’s sport is taking now.”

And finally…

If you could design a dream day, what would it look like?

Morning

John’s dream day starts with an early morning walk around Lake Windermere with partner Laura, daughter Isla and Tibetan Terrier Wilson. Then it’s back home to Stone for a full English with poached eggs and – must of all musts – black pudding.

After breakfast, they’re back in the car listening to ‘This is the One’ by the Stone Roses. Some of the passengers even appreciate John’s singing.

They pop by Thirsk to visit John’s dad, sister and brother-in-law at what has been the family home since John was two. After a proper coffee, there’s just time for a quick walk up Sutton Bank before they’re off to Manchester.

Afternoon

First stop, Lou Macari’s for fish and chips. “It evokes memories of when I used to go to games with my dad when I was younger and it’s still a really good chippy.”

Second stop, Old Trafford to watch Manchester United – the women’s or men’s team, John doesn’t mind – beat Liverpool.

In this dream day, travel isn’t an issue. So, within minutes of leaving the ground, John and his family are sunbathing on a beach in Menorca. They stay in Menorca for dinner, which is a paella and a glass (call it two) of Sauvignon Blanc by the harbour in Ciutadella.

Evening

Time’s also not an issue. Suddenly it’s New Year’s Eve and we’re off to the Golden Hall at Vienna’s famous Musikverein for a celebration of music from the Strauss dynasty. Think Last Night of the Proms without the Union flags and all the bobbing up and down. 

Then it’s back home to Stone where John’s dream day ends like a good Saturday should: meeting up with friends for a couple of pints of real ale at the Crown Wharf pub. A jam-packed day!

But John still hasn’t been to Lincoln. Perhaps if the Lionesses were to play a game there one day…

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Looking for accurate data and reliable property searches? Connect with a OneSearch Business Development Manager in your area to get started with OneSearch today – visit our registration page.

To learn more about National Customer Service Week, visit the Institute of Customer Service website.