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FCI have joined forces with Terrafirma to deliver a new search report, combining the current Premium Residential Environmental Report with Terrafirma’s official CON29M coal mining search. 

• Cost: £80.00 + VAT

• Location on tmconvey: Under the Environmental section

• Sample report: Click here to see a sample report

Available on tmconvey from early June, this search report combines the Environmental, Flood, Ground Stability, Energy and Infrastructure of the FCI Premium Residential Search, with a Terrafirma CON29M, which automatically includes nearby subsidence claims data (previously only available at additional cost from The Coal Authority). 

If you have any questions or queries, please contact your Account Manager, or get in touch with our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk

Groundsure’s Preliminary Unexploded Ordnance Risk Assessment will be available to order on tmconvey from early June – identifying the potential risks from unexploded ordnance (UXO) that could affect your client’s construction projects. 

• Cost: £195 + VAT

• Location on tmconvey: Under the Environmental section

• Sample report: Click here to see a sample report

About the report

Based on a 10km radius from the red dot marking the property, the report covers:

• Analysis of over 5,000 projects to mitigate bomb risks on  development sites since 1991

• Accurate bomb density mapping based from Ordnance Survey  maps 1941 -1944 

• Extensive archive of previous bomb excavation works and  threat assessment Bomb, V1 and V2 strike locations from original war records and area damage assessments (where available) 

• UXO risk assessment – contour maps applied around potential source of strike locations 

• The cost of the Preliminary report is discounted from the Stage 2 Detailed Risk Assessment

This report covers the possible health and safety risks for contractors under CDM 2015. Groundsure have also partnered with industry specialists Dynasafe BACTEC to provide a comprehensive view on the risks, so they can be factored into a site assessment.

If you have any questions or queries, please contact your Account Manager, or get in touch with our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk

Terrafirma have made a couple of changes to their reports, including adding a mine entry interpretive report to their CON29M and Ground report, as well as including a purchased Cheshire Salts Search in the Ground report. 

Mine Entry Interpretive Report added to CON29M and Ground report

Terrafirma have now included, as standard, a mine entry interpretive report for sites located within 20 metres of a coal mine entry. 

This is available within their official CON29M and Terrafirma Ground report – at no additional cost. 

The Ground report now includes the purchased Cheshire Salts Search 

The Ground report now includes the purchased Cheshire Salts Search as an appendix. This is to provide clarity to their brine mining risk assessment (including such assessment of brine mining hazards outside the Cheshire Brine Compensation District) and that of claims information obtained from a purchased Cheshire Salts Search. 

Please be aware that where such information is obtained, the terms and conditions of the Cheshire Salts Search and supplier may also apply.

REMINDER: Further Action Reports

Just a reminder that, even though the effective pass rate for the CON29M and Ground reports is now 99%, Terrafirma’s ‘Action’ reports remain in place and available if recommended. 

If you need to order such a report, please get in touch with your Account Manager or Helpdesk in the first instance. 

If you have any questions or queries, please contact your Account Manager, or get in touch with our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk 

Ordering searches is business as usual for property teams as they perform their due diligence and progress transactions to completion, yet the data their reports draw upon can tell us so much more. 

Here Groundsure take an in-depth look at available search data and reveal 20 facts you probably didn’t already know about the UK property market – including just how many properties are within 1km of the HS2 development.  

1. There are 560,677 dwellings within the UK that have a ‘Medium’ or ‘High' level of flooding from rivers and seas – and 10.25% of these may experience difficulties obtaining flood insurance for their property.  

2. Landowner permission is no longer required if oil and gas drilling takes place below 300m.

3. Towns ending in “wych” or “wich” tend to be associated with salt: Droitwich in Worcestershire, as well as Middlewich, Nantwich, Northwich and Leftwich in Cheshire are all known for their salt production.

4. Only approximately 259 postcodes in England fall within both the CON29M Coal Reporting Area and the Cheshire Brine Compensation Area.

5. 2,433,869 properties are within 1km of the HS2 development and every mile of track costs £403m!

6. The average insurance claim for a flood event is £28,000 yet only 6% of homeowners take steps to protect their property. By comparison, the average fire claim is £7,300 and 80% of homeowners protect against it, whilst the average claim for burglary is £1,000 and 54% of homeowners take precautionary steps. 

7. A Facebook photo once rumbled a false claim on a TA6 Property Information Form!

In 2012, the garden of a property in Newcastle flooded. In 2014, a couple purchased the property for £750,000. When they received the TA6 Property Information Form, which is completed by the seller, question 7 “Has any part of the property (whether buildings or surrounding garden or land) ever been flooded?” the sellers had answered “No”. The purchase successfully completed and the new owners moved into the property. In 2015, the garden then flooded twice, as did the basement of the property. The new owners then pursued legal against their vendors for “rescission on the sale contract” and to support their claim, discovered a photograph on their vendors Facebook page from July 2012 showing the back garden flooded. Whilst it is extremely rare to use the TA6 form as evidence, this goes to show that if a dedicated flood or environmental search had been purchased, the purchasers would have been fully aware that their property was at an incredibly localised flood risk. 

8. The average cost of cleaning up contaminated land is £250,000 per acre, meaning the average contaminated household plot would cost £15,000.

9. It wasn’t until 2000 that a CON29M report became a mandatory search undertaken by solicitors when acting for clients purchasing properties in former coal mining areas. 

10. 600 datasets amassing over 16 terabytes (yes, terabytes!) of data power the full suite of Groundsure reports and help conveyancers better inform their clients about environmental risks – including data on contaminated land, flooding, ground stability, current and historical land use, and transportation.

11. It wasn’t until 2000 when the introduction of Part 2A legislation came into effect, followed quickly by the 2001 Warning Cards, that it was recommended that conveyancers screen against contaminated land risk in order to perform their due diligence. The Flood Practice Note of 2013 and the Contaminated Land Practice Note of 2014 further cemented the need for environmental searches in land and property transactions.

12. In 2018, there was a 400% increase (versus 2017) in insurance claims due to natural ground subsidence. This is thought to be mainly due to the long hot and very dry summer – and not because of several million people jumping up and down when England finally won a penalty shootout.

13. 11% of the UK is either licensed or offered for oil and gas exploration.

14. Around 619,000 hectares of land in England and Wales were formerly covered by a wide range of industrial uses. 

15. Around 1.2 billion journeys are made on the London Underground each year and 55% of the network is above ground.

16. The biggest cause of natural ground subsidence insurance claims is due to shrink-swell clay soils as they expand and contract due to moisture changes.

17. 11% of the UK is occupied by the coalfield – with over 7 million properties within this area.

18. Groundsure holds a collection of over 3 million Historical Land Use records derived from OS Mapping, dating from as early as the 1840s. 

19. There are 7,781 onshore turbines in 1,991 projects in the UK.

20. An average fracking site is around 2ha in size, compared to 1,450ha for a wind farm, and 924ha for a solar farm.

On 12th April, Groundsure made some enhancements to their reports to make it even quicker and easier to read and absorb the information you need to pass onto your clients – including a new front cover layout to clarify where ‘professional opinion’, ‘further guidance’ and ‘screening’ information is available.

If you have any questions or queries, please contact your Account Manager, or get in touch with our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk 

Terry Jones Solicitors will be hosting a Spring Breakfast Property Seminar this May - in conjunction with tmgroup, Terrafirma and Howden - exploring the many and varied risks posed by the ground, alongside important changes to environmental due diligence in property development and purchase.

• Where? Shrewsbury Town Football Club (SY2 6ST)

• When? 8am-11am on Thursday 2nd May 2019 

• How do I register? Simply email marketing@terry-jones.co.uk to secure your place**

Learn more about the new chapter in the Conveyancing Handbook, the best ways to inform clients about ground hazard risks – and more!

Following breakfast at 8am, the seminar will begin at 8.30am. 

Presented by a panel of industry experts, the seminar sessions will cover a range of key topics, including:

• The new chapter in the Conveyancing Handbook reflecting the physical, legal and financial liabilities posed by ground hazards.

• Real-life case study examples highlighting the importance of identifying ground hazards.

• Advice on informing your clients about ground risks and how to manage them. 

• PI Insurance and how to achieve the best renewal terms in the current market.

There will then be a brief networking session – before the event closes at 11am.

Meet our panel of industry experts

If you’d like to find out more about our panel of industry experts, you can find a brief profile, as well as their LinkedIn profiles below:

• Clare Yates: Senior Business Development Manager for tmgroup with over 25 years of experience in the property industry. 

Connect with Clare

• Tom Backhouse: Award-winning geologist, entrepreneur and the CEO and Founder of Terrafirma, who specialise in the innovation and provision of environmental risk assessment and land information in the property, land, finance, insurance and public sectors. 

Connect with Tom

• Jenny Screech: Consultant with Howden UK Group Ltd, supporting their professional indemnity insurance (PII) proposition for solicitors and other legal professionals. 

Connect with Jenny

Secure your place and join us… 

Simply email marketing@terry-jones.co.uk to register**

**By sending your RSVP to Terry Jones Solicitors, you are agreeing to share your details with tmgroup, Terrafirma and Howden UK Group Limited. If you would not like to share your details with these companies, please ensure you add a note in your email opting out.  

Terrafirma have updated their CON29M with several new features to offer a new level of due diligence and efficiency, as they continue to change the way in which property professionals across the UK approach coal mining activity.

Available now on tmconvey, the updates include: 

• The inclusion of the UserKey, as currently used in Terrafirma’s Ground Report. The UserKey clearly highlights who within the transaction needs to take action to make it easier for the conveyancer to know what information needs to be reported to which party. 

• Addition of a new ‘At a Glance’ expert opinion

• Loss of value insurance has increased to £100,000 – covering any subsequent changes in Coal Authority data.

• Upfront inclusion of the mine entry interpretive report. Terrafirma have used new data technologies to apply a new risk model to each of the 173,000 recorded coal mine entries, analysing the zone of influence and the potential impact of a shaft on the use and value of a Site, at no extra cost. This enhancement brings a number of benefits for the conveyancer, purchaser and lender alike.

Terrafirma CEO Tom Backhouse comments:

‘Terrafirma have worked tirelessly for nearly five years to change the way in which property professionals view ground risk. It has always been our ambition to better support due diligence in former mining areas and to more effectively cover and advise both solicitors and their clients. After extensive market research and a monumental effort from our team of experts, we are exceptionally proud to present this new and enhanced official CON29M.’

Want to find out more?

You can see a sample report here. 

You can also register for these free webinars from Terrafirma. 

Mine Entries - time to lose the 20m buffer

Tuesday 9th April 2019 : 11am – 11.30am

Click here to register

Navigating the professional opinion minefield

Tuesday 16th April 2019 : 11am – 11.30am

Click here to register

If you have any questions or queries, please contact your Account Manager, or get in touch with our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk 

As you may already be aware, Ordnance Survey enhanced their mapping in late 2018. Applying the use of more realistic colour, as well as symbols, this has resulted in clearer boundaries and therefore better context for the mapping information displayed. For example, clearly distinguishing (by colour) where a ‘green’ field meets a ‘blue’ river, as well as where the river’s ‘brown’ mud banks start and finish.

To make sure our customers benefit from these latest improvements, we are automatically applying these changes to all mapping across tmconvey – after 10th January 2019. However, we have also updated our TM administrator permissions, so you can revert to the original look and feel, if you would prefer.

How do I update my mapping preferences?

Your TM administrator will be able to update your company preference by following the below steps:

1. Go to ‘System settings’ on the tmconvey Services Dashboard

2. Select ‘System defaults’

3. Select ‘View’

4. Select ‘Mapping defaults’

5. Select ‘Select map style’ 

6. You will see 2 maps side by side. This is your ‘current style’ and your ‘selected style’. You can then select from the bullet point list of different styles, changing them until you find one that suits. Please note, there are 5 different styles of map:

o Original 

o Standard (highlights the buildings rather than the background) 

o Outdoors (highlights the background rather than the buildings)

o Light (map with predominantly beige and grey colouring)

o Backdrop (map with lighter shades of colours)

7. Once you have settled on your choice, click ‘Save’. 

Please note, we’ve also updated our Case Plans, so they’ll be printed and saved in whichever mapping style you’ve selected under ‘System Settings’. 

If you have any questions or queries, please contact your Account Manager, or get in touch with our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk 

As you may already be aware, on Monday 15th October, Groundsure launched their updated and enhanced ‘Groundsure Screening’ report, as well as their redesigned and enhanced ‘Groundsure Review’ report. 

You can find more information about these changes, alongside pricing and sample reports, below:

Redesigned and enhanced : ‘Groundsure Screening’ report

This report is for lower value less complex commercial property transactions and multi-site portfolios. This enhanced report meets Law Society compliance on contaminated land and flood risk and it covers; 

> Full flood risk assessment and Energy data

> Planning constraints

> Ground stability screening

> Property specific radon assessment

> Transportation screening including Crossrail 1 and 2, HS2 and more

Enhancements include; intelligently filtered data, results in Plain English, intuitive layout and page flow, and fewer pages.

Click here to see a sample report 

NEW Pricing

Groundsure have also made changes to the price of their Screening report;

Redesigned and enhanced : ‘Groundsure Review’ report

Gives expert, bespoke opinion required for all high value property transactions, complex industrial sites and redevelopments.  The report includes;

> Law Society compliant contaminated land and flood risk assessment

> Ground stability and Property specific radon assessment

> Manual review of high detail historical Ordnance Survey mapping in all cases

> Operational environmental risk assessment from Groundsure’s in-house team of environmental experts

> Full Energy & Transportation data (including Crossrail 1 & 2, HS2 and more)

> Planning constraints

Enhancements include; intelligently filtered data with fewer pages - displaying only relevant results, manual assessments in plain English, operational environmental risk assessment, complete HS2 data, Crossrail 2 route and safeguarding, optional planning applications, and intuitive layout and page flow. Each report will now also provide the Consultant's name and contact details for any queries or advice

Click here to see a sample report

NEW Pricing

Groundsure have also made changes to the price of their Review report;   

If you have any questions, please get in touch with your account manager, or get in touch with our friendly helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571, or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk.

Terrafirma new reports! Available now on tmconvey, here’s a handy round-up of their new Ground Report and CON29M…

NEW: Ground Report from Terrafirma

The Terrafirma Ground Report has arrived TODAY on tmconvey, featuring expert risk assessment and analysis on all ground risks and liabilities.

Click here to see a sample report

The Terrafirma Ground Report translates the risk from mining activity, subsidence, sinkholes, radon, fracking, mineral planning activity and more. It also includes Terrafirma’s official CON29M report, as well as never-seen before data and technology driven solutions to analyse the potential impact of man-made and natural ground perils on property transactions.

Key features 

> Pass rate over 97%

> £10 million Professional Indemnity

> 100% of the risk of reporting on mining and natural ground perils is transferred to Terrafirma

> Professional opinion with dynamic and colour coded next steps

> NEW User Key : Highlighting key actions for conveyancers, lenders and purchasers

> Integrated Con29M : Satisfying The Law Society CON29M (2018) guidance report

> SinkholeALERT

> Accepted by all lenders

Pricing 

NOW AVAILABLE: Terrafirma’s CON29M

The Terrafirma CON29M Report is the new official alternative to the Coal Authority CON29M.

Click here to see a sample report

Key features

> Official data licensed from the Coal Authority

> Expert interpreted answers to all 11 questions (14 for commercial)

> Liability for professional opinion passing to Terrafirma

> £10 million Professional Indemnity

> Satisfies the Law Society CON29M (2018) guidance report

Pricing 

Will I still be able to order the Coal Authority’s CON29M? 

Yes, of course. The Coal Authority’s CON29M will continue to be available to order on tmconvey. You’ll now just have a choice of two products, instead of one.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with your Account Manager, or our Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571, or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk.