In the wake of the much anticipated Climate Change Practice Note published by the Law Society this week Dan Montagnani, former CEO of Groundsure and an advisor and consultant to the geospatial, sustainability and conveyancing search industries gives his thoughts on the implications for property lawyers
Publication of The Law Society Climate Change Risk Property Practice Note (and the associated Supplementary Technical Note to the Climate Change Risk Property Practice Note: Climate Change Searches and Physical Risks (herein collectively referred to as CCR-PPN)) – May 2025
1. Climate change risk is impacting property in the UK today and will do so to a greater effect in the coming years. Risks to property may not be present today but could become material within the term of the mortgage. Mortgage lenders continue to become more and more concerned about climate change risks as do insurers.
2. Publication of CCR-PPN provides clarity and specificity to the role and reasonable expectations of a property lawyer with regard to climate change risks in the course of a property transaction. Accordingly CCR-PPN also serves to demarcate what might not be reasonable or beyond reasonable steps. This might be regarded as useful in the context of a relatively fast moving topic with variable expectations from clients and other stakeholders. The Law Society acknowledges that early revisions to the guidance are likely (the Law Society Flood Risk Practice Note was revised in 2014, 2016 and 2020 having been originally published in 2013).
3. Climate change risks are broadening in significance in the UK with Heat Stress, Wildfire, Drought and others becoming more prevalent and material in the context of property ownership alongside more regularly acknowledged incidents of flooding and coastal erosion. CCR-PPN recognises this and explicitly makes reference to a wide range of risk factors including those stated above.
4. CCR-PPN advises that in the majority of cases and generally with regard to residential property, a robust Climate Risk Search product provides a fundamental and reasonable initial assessment of climate change. Identified risks may require some level of further consideration in a similar manner to other property impairments as they might arise in the course of a conveyance.
5. Property lawyers and their firms must be familiar with the Property Search products available in the market to remain aligned with the CCR-PPN noting that many established products contain less analysis of broader climate perils with some Environmental Searches having no assessment of climate change risk.
After a couple of decades debating the validity or otherwise of climate change, the vast majority of the population acknowledge its reality, regardless of their personal views or level of engagement with it. Climate change is here and manifesting in the UK largely as more dramatic weather systems with consequences for property assets, their use, enjoyment and value.
The UK property industry has become generally familiar with the most obvious and prevalent aspect of climate change – flooding. We have for some time had reasonably good data with which to better understand the risk. Some investment has been and continues to be made in flood defence and alleviation schemes with better planning policy and decision making. An engaged insurance industry has greatly supported matters and also worked with the government on FloodRe for higher risk properties. And in conveyancing we have had clarity with a Law Society Practice Note on Flood Risk supported by Flood Risk Searches being widely available in the market.
The reality of climate change however is that the reality itself is changing. A more diverse range of climate driven outcomes is upon us and with that a more diverse range of consequences lay ahead.
March and early April 2025 have seen record dry periods with wildfires burning across the landscapes of all four home nations – before we have even reached Easter. Each year we see record weather statistics increasingly pointing back to the science evidence that our global climate is changing with increasing recognition for instance of a UK wildfire season.
In June 2022 I presented the launch of the first climate change risk assessment in an Environmental Search product at The Law Society. To bring the event to life we asked the Met Office to provide a hypothetical weather forecast for a day in July in 2050. This illustrated daytime highs of 43 degrees Celcius in Worcester with an uncomfortable night time minimum temperature of 24 degrees. One month later in July 2022 the UK witnessed the hottest temperatures on record above 40 degrees and the loss of people’s dwellings for the first time as a result of wildfire spread.
In April 2023 The Law Society published general guidance for lawyers with regard to climate change and how they should be approaching client matters that may be affected by or have consequences related to the changing climate. The guidance was positioned as “practical advice” for lawyers and covered the broad base of legal practice and a range of issues.
May 2025 sees the Law Society publication of the more specific Climate Change Risk Property Practice Note (CCR-PPN). The Practice Note will represent the Law Society’s guidance for “best practice” and set out a more specific set of actions and consideration for property lawyers as they factor climate into how they advise their clients.
Many property lawyers have rightly asked the question “why are lawyers being asked to advise clients on climate change?”
Well the answer is that they are not. As much as anything the CCR-PPN is an informative and considered effort from the Law Society to offer suggested actions and considerations in order to discharge lawyer obligations to clients where property matters overlap and have some degree of relation to a changing climate. In the absence of this guidance it could be argued that a property lawyer’s obligations are potentially ambiguous and perhaps more open to interpretation and scrutiny. The CCR-PPN brings a degree of clarity to this matter with a prescriptive formula of reasonable steps that ought to be followed.
Beyond climate change itself there are other important factors at play here. Societal and the property market expectations as to who should do what in a transaction are also shifting along with the introduction of soft and hard measures to move us towards greater energy efficiency and safer and more comfortable spaces within buildings for both now and in the future.
Some two years in the making and with considerable thought and process involved in the drafting and editing, CCR-PPN considers climate change risks in three broad categories:
i) Physical risks – flooding, coastal erosion, wildfire, etc
ii) Transition risks – policy and regulatory changes such as Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard Regulations
iii) Liability & legal risks – as they pertain to i) and ii) above and also with regard to the transaction contract
These three categories of risk were widely considered in the Law Society guidance of 2023 and therefore are not particularly new or surprising. However, the CCR-PPN does advance thinking in the area of the increasingly wide spectrum of climate change risk and perils. Specifically, in the accompanying Technical Note the Law Society goes into some degree of detail with regard to the broader climate perils including:
- Flood risk
- Coastal flooding
- Coastal erosion
- Ground stability
- Heat stress and heat exposure
- Water stress (drought)
- Wildfire
- Sea level rise
- Extreme weather
Relevance is of course ultimately the important aspect in all of this. How will the majority of the market and property lawyers deal with these issues in the majority of cases within day to day workflow?
As with all other well intentioned, modern day checks and balances in the busy and time-poor world of conveyancing, there is the real risk that more questions to be answered just slows the process down and introduces a little more grit to the cogs that need to turn in order to make transactions happen. Whilst well intentioned “improvements” to process are welcome, unfortunately there is often limited consideration of the practical solution that needs development in order to make sure that the new checks and balances happen seamlessly and with minimal effort and cost.
Having landed at the Law Society in June 2022 Climate Change Risk Searches are evolving at pace and in response to the changing landscape of climate perils. But as this takes place it is supremely important that property lawyers and conveyancing firms understand risks that are covered in the Climate Risk Searches and the extent of assessment.
Whilst some of the climate risks we see developing and beginning to have greater impact in the UK are gradual in nature and therefore are manageable in a more considered way over time, others are significantly more concerning with short term and catastrophic consequences.
Flooding (in the UK) whilst clearly concerning and requiring fundamental adjustment by society, generally manifests as inconvenience, some financial loss and the associated stress and anxiety. Wildfire on the other hand is an example of a very real, dangerous and catastrophic risk that is presenting an increasing danger to UK property. One question that every property lawyer should be asking is “what does the wildfire data in my Climate Risk Search tell me?”
CCR-PPN should be seen as useful and prescriptive guidance that clearly sets out what reasonable measures a property lawyer ought to take in the course of providing client advice on a transaction. It also serves to effectively also ring fence responsibility which property lawyers might regard as a welcome certainty in their hectic and ever challenging market.
Dan Montagnani is an advisor and consultant to the geospatial, sustainability and conveyancing search industries and Executive Chair at Map Impact a leading supplier of Earth Observation Climate Risk Analytics to the Financial and Legal Services markets
