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As I mentioned in my last post, here is the major challenge:

In the face of climate change, how do you make sure you have the necessary insurance coverage and it will remain affordable and available over the life of your ownership and a significant period after (sometimes 30 years+)?

In my search, I recently looked at traditional stakeholders in the real estate industry and see how they could assist me in identifying and minimizing every increasing environmental risks to my home.

Ideally, these are my information brokers – they will provide you with expert knowledge and advice to help understand the potential risks to your property and the necessary coverage needed to minimize that risk.

First, I started with real estate agents.

Ideally, the Real Estate agent will be able to identify potential climate change risks – such as a house being too near a body of water, etc.  Ideally, they have some kind of duty or obligation to identify risks posed by a more extreme, unpredictable and changing environment.  So, for instance, a real estate agent needing to be legally aware and advise on climate change-related risks in the future.

This will vary from region to region, depending on local laws and industries.  So, my region is Ontario, Canada.  What are the duties of a real estate agent according to climate change?

To answer this I looked up the regulatory body of Real Estate Brokers, Agents and Salesman, the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO).  Their mission is to

“[ensure] public trust and confidence in Ontario’s real estate profession through excellence in regulatory services and through consumer awareness initiatives.”

They both train professionals and enforce Ontario’s regulations including a code of ethics which is meant to help provide consumer protection.  Some regulation entries reference fairness, honest, promoting best interests of clients, competent service and providing knowledgeable opinions.  But does this specifically apply to climate change based-risks?

Do these regulations mean an Ontario real estate agent should be aware of climate change implications?  For instance, if you are buying a coastal property that will be vulnerable to rising sea water level, should your real estate client be aware of it and advise you against buying the property?

Or on a more practical level, would they actually do this?

I phoned up the Real Estate Council of Ontario to get further clarification.  My questions were two-fold:

a) are real estate brokers and salespeople obligated to document climate change related risks?

b) how can they help identify and manage climate change risks in properties?

I was curious how they would answer.

The ideal and unexpected answer would be that real estate agents (or their supporting team) are knowledgeable about climate change risks to real estate and are required to warn you about these issues.

However, I was expecting some awareness of the issue and that they would either direct me to a resource to help or be developing some initiative to address this.

After talking to two people, my impression is the organization is completely unaware of the potential risks and implications of climate change to real estate.  They didn’t even seem to make the connection that climate change is relevant to climate change.

They honestly stated their organization and real estate agents do not have the expertise to comment on these issues.  Unfortunately, they had no suggestions on who else could help, instead stating I would need “to talk to scientists”.

So, for me, it seems that unfortunately, at least in Ontario, real estate agents will not be able to help me identify and minimize climate change risks for real estate insurance, let alone real estate in general – in fact, most are probably not even aware of the issue.

I still think it is important to use a real estate agents as they are legally regulated, require training and provide information to minimize risks when buying and selling property – just not climate change risks.

Next: Is Climate Change Going to Raise Your Property Taxes?

Previous: Climate Change, Housing Insurance and My Home