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Episode 16 - Part 2: Do we need to talk about the environment in survey reports?
59 Plays2 years ago
Kate Charrington joins us for part two of our first episode of Season 2 of Survey Booker Sessions.
Kate is the Director of Projekt3 and is focused on helping residential surveyors future-proof their business by introducing and developing sustainability into their products and practices.
We discuss 3 topics together and in this second part, we are discussing whether or not you need to discuss the environment in your reports.
In this video, we discuss:
🌳 Do we need to talk about the environment in reports?
🌦️ What are the statistics on how environmental issues are affecting properties right now?
📝 Where do these comments fit into your report?
⚖️ Do you discuss potential legislation change?
⚠️ What are the realities of liability when discussing environmental aspects?
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Transcript
Should environmental considerations be in property reports?
00:00:00
Speaker
Okay, so yeah another big topic that I wanted to look at and you touched on this earlier and the first part was Do we really need to discuss the environment in reports? I know environments a massive topic at the moment. We're all concerned about, you know
00:00:13
Speaker
the heat everywhere and I find it's been really rainy here, but that's the effect of everything moving around. If a report is ultimately about, I suppose, the snapshot of the condition the property is in at that point, is it safe to go ahead in terms of from the risk profile of that customer and understanding what's in there? Do we need to comment on the environmental aspect of the future? Does it open up like extra liability or extra risk if the comments you make
00:00:41
Speaker
aren't right in terms of where the environment ends up going. Yeah, I suppose there's quite a lot we can talk about, I think, in this one. Yeah. Do we need to talk about it as the first part? Yes.
Importance of sustainability in survey reports
00:00:53
Speaker
Well, of course, I'm going to say that I do kind of, you know, I cast myself as not just a kind of climate conscious, but also climate active surveyor as well. So, you know, in fact, the kind of
00:01:09
Speaker
One core element, I should say, of my business is that, you know, I try to be as sustainable as possible. I know sustainable has a lot of, you know, varying uses in terms, and it's very broad. But, you know, I try to be as good as I can be in terms of the planet. But also, I think fundamentally, when it comes down to home survey reports,
00:01:33
Speaker
You know, we need to change with the times, right? And that doesn't necessarily mean stepping outside the scope of our terms of engagement. But just coming back to the kind of first aspect of your question there, you know, does it really matter? So let's focus on why it matters first. So if we think about, you know, the VONS have said that I think it's approximately 74%
00:02:00
Speaker
of adults, so those over 16 and above, they are concerned about climate change as a general.
Public concern and climate recommendations
00:02:09
Speaker
So that's kind of one piece. That's the masses telling us as surveyors that people are concerned about it. Whether that's each individual client or not is obviously going to vary, but that's generally what we're seeing.
00:02:24
Speaker
And we also know that the Climate Change Committee have made substantial kind of recommendations to improve the energy efficiency of our buildings, of our property. And that's not just owner occupied, that's also privately rented, that's social housing, that's commercial as well. We know that last year the UK had its kind of
00:02:47
Speaker
40 plus degree weather. So that's a real concern for a lot of people. Whether you either just hate the heat or actually maybe you're considered more vulnerable, you may have concerns around that as well.
Impact of climate change on properties
00:03:03
Speaker
And then if we look at people like the ABI, they actually said that the heat wave last year actually contributed to over 18,000 subsided, sorry, contributed to
00:03:15
Speaker
I think it was 18,000 more subsidence claims last year. And that equated to something like 15, sorry, one claim every 15 minutes in the second half of last year. So these are all aspects telling us that climate matters, but also not does it just matter, it actually impacts and affects property. And obviously we go and see property, right? So in terms of,
00:03:45
Speaker
whether we should be reporting on it. Absolutely. So when it comes to home surveys in particular, yes, the environment absolutely matters. Yes, surveyors are kind of property condition experts, but actually the way that properties interact with the environment
00:04:07
Speaker
is hugely important. So if we can take the example of a leaking roof, just as an example, that is not a defect purely created by maybe poor component detailing. That is something which is impacted by weather conditions. You need the rain to fall in order for there to be a potential roof leak. So
00:04:33
Speaker
Regardless of how you think about it, whether you're talking about climate change, whether you're talking about weather patterns, whether you're talking about energy use and resources in general, these are aspects which should be included in an evolving survey marketplace. I would say times have changed and things have happened. We are seeing everywhere in the world, we're seeing climate just
00:05:02
Speaker
you know, impact people on a day-to-day basis. And we need to make sure that it becomes a component of our surveys. And that's not necessarily a perspective of, you know, climate change is happening. Be scared, don't buy this house. That's not what I'm saying at all. We need to make sure that the information and advice that we give is truly relevant. And we need to actually draw the attention
00:05:30
Speaker
of the relevant information and advice to clients so that they can make the best decision for
Debating the inclusion of environmental factors in surveys
00:05:36
Speaker
them.
00:05:36
Speaker
Okay, that makes sense. So from a practical perspective, there's still two questions I've got in my mind. How does this get into a report ultimately? So for example, like the first thing I was thinking about is, is it a section that just sits in risks, for example? So the environment's changing, hit a risk, be aware of it. Obviously more detailed than that. And or does it sit within the main body of the report? You're talking about the roof section, that's where we then missed the environmental aspect in relation to the roof.
00:06:06
Speaker
And then the other part was, does it go beyond, I suppose, the sort of more basic level of you live in a clay area or going to live in a clay area? That's more prone to shrinkage. That's a comment you might ordinarily make. Is it that type of level? I suppose I'm trying to understand how does it practically...
00:06:25
Speaker
get put through your report, if that makes sense. Yeah, sure. So in terms of how you kind of compartmentalize the environment within a report, I don't think you can. If you're going to deliver best advice to your client, it needs to be holistic. So if you think about we as surveyors undertake holistic inspections of property, making sure that actually we follow the trail, the same should be done for
00:06:53
Speaker
and for the report itself. So yes, it can relate to risks in the risk section. But actually, if we're talking about roof spaces, if we're talking about heavily glazed areas like conservatories, are we talking about heat loss? Are we talking about overheating? So there's
00:07:14
Speaker
There's a multitude of different things which we can pinpoint and actually include within a survey report that don't just fit into, you know, a risk section. And the way I would probably kind of think about it is if we think about asbestos, that might be situated in a risk section of a report, but equally it should be, not always though, but sorry,
00:07:40
Speaker
When I say not always, I mean that there are some reports which I see that don't always do it, but it should also be inserted in the relevant elements sections of the report as well. So whether you're talking about asbestos in facials and textured ceilings, in terms of asbestos lagging on pipework or whatever, it should all be kind of run succinctly throughout the report so that the client actually has that in their mind as a potential risk
00:08:09
Speaker
Okay. So if you're, if you're commenting on something within the property, for example, like we know loads of houses have got gas boilers at the moment and likely you can, you know, I'm going to be able to replace gas boilers with gas boilers. That's that's going to, um, you know, get phased out. Do you need to be commenting on stuff like that within the report in terms of what potentially is likely to be an impact if they're expecting to live in the property within a certain timeframe, um, or
00:08:34
Speaker
Is that something you leave out? How do you report on what you include and what you don't include? What's appropriate?
Fact vs. projection in environmental reporting
00:08:41
Speaker
So I think it's really important to establish fact versus projections. So really make sure that if you are commenting on the fact that there is a proposed
00:08:55
Speaker
proposal of, you know, XY or Z, particularly in relation to, you know, replacing gas boilers with hydrogen or, you know, everyone should be installing heat pumps. The reality is that that's not really happening yet. So, I mean, you use that phrase kind of likely in there and that's where language is really important because what you might consider likely or what I may consider people should be doing
00:09:25
Speaker
And the reality is that do we have infrastructure in place? Is it actually gonna happen? Is the legislation actually passed? And so just being very clear with clients about what is currently the case and what is proposed and make sure that that proposed aspect is actually included if that is something that you are actually commenting on. But I think I mentioned earlier about the concept of needs
00:09:53
Speaker
minimum energy efficiency standards. That's that's prize prime example in terms of the proposals which are in place. And particularly if a client you're serving in terms of delivering them a home survey is actually purchasing a property to let and then absolutely, you should be making them aware of the proposed legislation.
00:10:16
Speaker
And so that they actually find that, you know, in five, in eight years time or whatever it is, they aren't actually sitting with a property that's actually become obsolete, purely because of a higher energy rating, sorry, a lower energy rating than maybe is needed to rent out property.
00:10:38
Speaker
Is there a, I don't know how this works with the home standards myself, but the aspects around liability, whether you comment on these things or not, I suppose, is there just
Surveyor liabilities and responsibilities
00:10:53
Speaker
as much liability? We don't comment on it as if you sort of do and say the wrong thing. I don't know.
00:10:59
Speaker
Yeah, so I would say liability is probably the biggest cause for concern that I speak with surveyors about when I say to them, look, why don't you talk about this? Why don't you talk about that? And, you know, a lot of my kind of pushback from clients is, well, you know, I'm worried about putting that in there because I might have extra liability.
00:11:23
Speaker
My view, and I have spoken to other people about this, but my view is, well, look, you have access to public information. You are a surveyor who should have a reasonable knowledge of particular topics, such as climate change and how it impacts property. By not talking about something, you're leaving yourself more open
00:11:54
Speaker
to claims because actually if something is reasonably within your knowledge, then not commenting would be a disservice and actually where liability could stem from ultimately. So yeah, from my side, I know it's really difficult for surveyors, but ultimately I think if the data and information is there and it's available and it's backed up, why not say something?
00:12:24
Speaker
And that's my view anyway. And I don't think, I mean, I tend to use the example of something like asbestos actually. If you think about that as a health and safety issue, you know, you as a surveyor, you aren't necessarily a radon specialist or an asbestos specialist that actually you will comment on why it matters, your signpost people to where they need to go to get further information.
00:12:53
Speaker
And that doesn't actually extend your scope or reach of the survey itself. So ultimately, I mean, clients are going to be less annoyed for you wanting to deliver a survey that actually helps them make the biggest decision of their lives than, you know, if you
00:13:14
Speaker
basically just said, that's okay, carry on. Yeah, true. And I suppose the flip context is just making sure it's approachable at the same time. So it's not something that's doom and gloom. And if something's going to go wrong, then yes, you need to highlight it, but not in a, you know, the world's drying up, the clay is cracking, good luck, but more explaining it. Yeah.
00:13:38
Speaker
Exactly, but you know, something that I always say, whilst people may kind of perceive me to be, you know, well, I don't know how people see me actually, but I am, you know, like I said, I'm a very kind of climate focused individual. That doesn't necessarily make me a doom and gloom person. I actually personally just believe that everybody can make a difference. And as surveyors, we are guardians of the built environment, right? So we should,
00:14:08
Speaker
make it part of our work to help to actually drive mitigation of climate change where we can. But having said that, we should do that where it is relevant and where it is appropriate, and not just for the sake of a comment here and there. Awesome. That's really, really interesting. I think we'll probably touch on some of the environmental aspects in our next topic, so tune in for that.