An important part of development that often causes no end of angst is the existence of specialist reports, be it environmental, site/soil conditions; rights of light or similar; the importance that they play for those who did not commission them yet need to rely on them to offset their risk; and the problems that those that did commission them, whether directly or indirectly, have in trying to sort out the demands of those who need to rely on them when, more often than not, the commercial pressure is on to get that sorted.

Being able to rely on the findings of a specialist report can be of great importance to those offering funding for acquisition or development finance; those purchasers acquiring a freehold or leasehold interest in land for a substantial part of a development or a property and their funder; and contractors being asked to take on soil and rock condition/environmental risk .

Without the ability to be able legally to rely on the findings of such reports and potentially, should they be able to prove loss, being able to recover against those who wrote the reports the funding may not be offered or the terms upon which it is offered may be commercially unfavourable to or unviable for the borrower; the purchaser at worst may not proceed; may reduce the price and/or require the seller to maintain some contingent liability rather than the deal offering a clean exit for the seller or a limited time on the hook; or the contractor may refuse to accept risk for or cap its liability for the risk, the subject of the report – none of which is at all relaxing for those trying to agree heads of terms/agreements when the commercial pressure is on.

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