The Report No One Explained — And the Risk Almost Missed

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It wasn’t many weeks ago that a lady picked up the phone and called Property Searches Direct, and from the moment she started speaking, it was clear how distressed she was.

Through tears, she asked me how she could get answers to some questions that no one had been able to explain to her. She had just received her contract pack and, instead of doing what many people understandably do, simply signing where she was told to sign, she decided to actually read the reports inside it.

And I should say, far too many people don’t read what they’re sent. Transactions often take months, emotions run high, and by the time paperwork arrives, all people want is to exchange contracts and get their keys. But that approach can be very dangerous.

Inside her contract pack was a screening environmental report. These are the cheapest level of environmental search available. They don’t provide answers, they simply flag potential risks. And it’s worth noting that you can get basic environmental hazard alerts for free on our website, so it does beg the question: why would anyone be paying for a screening report at all?

Her problem was this: the report had flagged a significant coastal erosion risk. She was due to exchange contracts, with completion scheduled for the following week. She had no explanation of the risk, no clarity on what it actually meant, and as a cash buyer, all of her money was exposed.

Quite understandably, she needed to know whether she was buying a home that would still be standing in fifty years, or whether it could be heading towards the edge of a cliff in five.

We were able to direct her to the appropriate report and get clear answers within a couple of days. But I asked her an important question: how long had that original report been sitting with her conveyancer?

When she checked the date, she was shocked. The report was over three months old.

Now, if there had been a mortgage lender involved, this issue may well have been flagged earlier. But because she was a cash buyer, the alert had never been raised or explained to her.

This highlights a very common issue in property transactions. Conveyancers traditionally control when searches are ordered and when clients are allowed to see them. In many cases, reports aren’t shared as they’re returned, often because of concerns about follow-up questions or time pressures. But in this situation, information that was absolutely critical to the buyer’s decision-making process was simply not communicated.

Thankfully, once she had the right report and a clear understanding of the risk, she was able to make an informed decision. She did go on to exchange and complete, albeit later than planned, but crucially, she did so with her eyes open.

This is a real insight into standard conveyancing practices across England and Wales. If you, as a buyer, completely relinquish responsibility and don’t have direct access to your reports as they’re completed, you can remain in the dark until the very last moment.

Your conveyancer, and even your lender, may be comfortable with certain risks. But you’re the one who has to live there when the furniture starts floating around the living room during a flood.

A full environmental report can be returned in as little as thirty minutes. It can provide information on flood risk, ground stability, contaminated land, climate change impacts, coastal erosion, radon gas, infrastructure changes, planning risk, and much more. From that information, you can decide early on whether further surveys are needed, or whether the property is right for you at all.

I’ve been pressing for nearly ten years now that sellers should be disclosing far more information about their properties before they ever come to market. Doing so would prevent exactly these types of last-minute shocks and reduce the number of transactions that fall through. I’ll cover that in a future episode.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Moving Home, Uncovered. If you found this useful, subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes, and head over to propertysearchesdirect.co.uk/podcast to send me your questions. I’ll cover them in future episodes to help make moving home a smoother, less stressful experience for everyone.