No Search, No Surprises: Key Takeaways from our recent Wee Webinar

Daniel Gilbert, a Research Associate at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP) shares his thoughts after watching the first in our series of Wee Webinars in collaboration with the Scottish Paralegal Association.

"In the space of a compact twenty-minute online video, practical, well thought out and structured information was presented regarding both the Authority’s No Search Certificate and the wider role and resources of the Authority.

The benefits of No Search Certificates with respect to off-coalfield residential properties were clearly explained, both what the certificates do cover (especially with respect to defined insurance cover) and, equally importantly, what they do not cover.

The video explains how I, or anyone, can check whether where I live - now or previously - is in such an area, using the Authority’s online resources. Interestingly, it appears that I have lived in properties near ex-colliery areas, and in the case of the Midlothian Coalfield almost abutting it, without having ever lived within such a demarcated area.

Indeed, where I live now isn’t in a former-coalfield area but the neighbouring county to my south, Fife, does have a rich coal mining history - including at Longannet, the site of Scotland’s last substantial underground coal mine and also of the nearby coal-fired power station (now also closed) of the same name.

Thinking about it now for the first time, it would have been better if I had secured a No Search Certificate at the time of my house purchase. Perhaps if I had previously lived in a former colliery area then I would have thought of it? When my next property transaction approaches, and having watched this video, I won’t be so oblivious again.

I’m someone with an unusual level of fascination in mining, both domestically and internationally, both its benefits and its ills. Yet, I never thought about post-mine closure impacts in personal terms, as potentially directly reaching me. This video brings home a British flavour to such impacts, post-mine subsidence isn’t something just happens somewhere far from our shores."

"I very much recommend the webinar “No Search, No Surprises: Safeguarding Clients Off Coalfield”, to both legal and non-legal audiences."

Please click the link here to listen to the Wee Webinar.