Environmental analytics business Groundsure has launched a new climate change microsite for conveyancers.
The site seeks to demonstrate the scale of potential risk from climate change on property transactions as well as the governance and compliance risks for law firms through the duty of care to advise clients and lenders.
Alongside details explaining their client obligations in light of the legal opinions given by Professor Sarah De Gay and Stephen Tromans KC, the site features clauses that property lawyers can insert into their client care summaries and reports on title to lenders in commercial and residential transactions.
The clauses were designed with direct input from conveyancers and commercial real estate lawyers and are being reviewed by The Chancery Lane Project, which provides an open source set of climate clause resources to the wider legal community.
The clauses aim to help conveyancers highlight climate change risks to their clients in a compliant and consistent way. A standard clause is available for residential transactions, while five clauses have been developed for commercial property transactions, given the greater variation in conditions and situations.
Conveyancers can drop these clauses into their standard documentation, highlighting any specific potential issues from the environmental report as normal.
The microsite also includes background information on the scale and impact of climate change on property and how it could affect law firms.
Dan Montagnani (pictured), the CEO of Groundsure, said: “When it comes to climate change, there is some concern about what conveyancers can do to meet the growing body of opinion that supports a duty of care to advise clients on climate risk. The microsite should help solicitors understand exactly what those legal obligations are. We also outline how using a forward-looking environmental search that automatically includes climate data, can assist firms in meeting their ESG objectives. It also provides a clear sign to their PI insurer that they are addressing these risks through their advisory.
“This comes ahead of both lenders and the Law Society looking to implement guidance on climate due diligence. We are providing a straightforward pathway for conveyancers to get ahead of the curve using a combination of our ClimateIndex module and clauses to look ahead and advise effectively.”
David Kempster, marketing director of Groundsure, added: “The microsite will be an organic resource library as the conveyancing industry moves toward implementing climate guidance. Consistent and effective clauses combined with clear and actionable analysis from ClimateIndex means conveyancers now have better tools at their disposal.This will allow conveyancers to triage risk for their lender clients while improving the information flow back to lenders. At a higher level, we want to guide and help lawyers adjust as they prepare for changes to guidance.”
