What Public Records Reveal About Critical Sites Before a Crisis

During and in the immediate aftermath of a crisis, the sooner leaders can access essential information, the sooner an appropriate response can be enacted. Knowledge is often the key to effective disaster recovery. As threats evolve and panic grows, calm communication can be difficult to maintain; knowledge provides a framework for proactive actions to be built around.

By providing leaders with swift access to infrastructural, environmental, legal and regulatory information, business owners help to ensure responses are well-informed and directed. In a report published by McKinsey, more than 40% of executives identified clear direction as the single most important capability during a crisis, stressing the importance of knowledge-led recovery.

However, it’s not always clear what types of information will prove critical during a crisis, with different types of events necessitating unique reactions. Having access to detailed property records, for example, may not appear important in times of calm, but when efficient recovery rests on proving titles, claims and values, having access to this information can prove crucial.

The Importance of Property Records to Disaster Recovery

While immediate priorities in the event of a disaster will be to ensure the safety and security of people and property, next steps will often involve assessments of physical and financial damages. In the aftermath of a flood, fire or serious act of vandalism, the sooner insurance and tax relief processes can be enacted, the sooner normal business operations can resume.

By providing leaders with streamlined access to detailed property records, business owners can expedite the recovery process and ensure all relevant financial protections are enabled.

Specifically, property records can aid processes like:

• Insurance and tax relief: Deeds, title records, tax records and appraisals provide evidence of ownership and value to help ensure fair insurance and relief payouts.
• Grant applications: Proof of ownership through title deeds and land records are required to apply for grant-funded financial support in the aftermath of a disaster.
• Boundary restoration: Land surveys and plot maps provide evidence of property lines to help ensure owned land is retained if boundaries are damaged in a crisis.
• Rebuilding and repairs: Zoning records, building characteristics information and blueprints provide fundamental details required to perform appropriate restoration.

Detailed, well-organized property records can also help leaders to prevent and mitigate future disasters. By thoroughly reviewing environmental reports, zoning maps and structural records, business owners can uncover historic damages and likely threats to protect against, enabling leaders to adjust preparedness and security strategies to better address high-probability risks.

What Types of Property Information Are Publicly Available?

In times of normalcy, leaders may not consider identifying and organizing property records a priority. Thankfully, property records for most realty in any given constituency are maintained by local government agencies and made publicly available through real estate data platforms.

While business owners can access many different types of property records, there are a few specific documents that can be particularly useful in crisis management and disaster recovery terms, both to help identify high-probability risks and facilitate informed emergency responses.

Key types of publicly available property information include:

• Hazard maps provide exact information about levels of flood, fire, mudslide and other location-based hazard risks around properties to help inform defensive improvements
• Permit and inspection records provide detailed information about electrical, plumbing and infrastructural works which can reveal unsafe renovations and high-probability risks
• Deeds and easements provide records of ownership, boundary information, property value and access rights information which can help to streamline disaster recovery
• Property characteristics information can be found in property reports detailing traits like square footage and original construction details which can help to inform repairs
• Tax records provide information about the assessed value of the property as well as its size, age and tax payment history which are typically required to file insurance claims

How to Find Public Property Records

Business owners can find public property records by checking the tax assessor or recorder on their local county website, or by searching for the information on a real estate data and research platform. Oftentimes, the latter option is preferred, as business owners need only search their property’s full address to receive all information in one place.

Real estate data and research platforms can provide key information like:

• Ownership records: Registered names and contact information for property owners
• Deed documents: Official transfer deeds, mortgage filings and assignments
• Financial records: Property sales history, comparable sales and lien information
• Zoning information: Zoning codes, permitted land use and development potential
• Structural details: Building characteristics, lot size, square footage and building age
• Tax and permit data: Tax assessments, tax values and filed building permit history

What Public Property Records Can Reveal About Critical Sites

By identifying, updating and maintaining detailed property records sourced from a trusted real estate data and research platform, business owners can position themselves to best address disaster recovery, as well as uncover key insights about critical sites to help improve defenses.

Below are some examples of the types of information that can be gleaned from public records and what that information can reveal about critical sites to help leaders improve preparedness.

Property and Environmental Records

Thorough reviews of public property and environmental records can reveal hidden legal and physical risks associated with critical sites. For example, regulatory reports can uncover past violations and hazardous material spills which may have weakened structures or contaminated surrounding areas, making sites more vulnerable to damage and wider issues post-disaster.

Public records can also shed light on neighboring hazards associated with nearby properties, for example, structural issues with industrial sites that could impact your properties during a disaster. By investigating these records and factoring insights into preparedness and disaster recovery plans, business owners can implement practical improvements to help minimize risk.

Flood Zone and Hazard Map Data

Publicly available flood zone and hazard map data can provide factual insights into how risks are likely to develop during natural disasters and emergencies. Findings can reveal the level of flood risk critical sites are exposed to, as well as the likely scale of resulting damages; this data can be used to plan safe evacuation routes and inform proactive defense improvements.

Hazard map data can also provide insight into utility vulnerability during disasters by revealing potential weaknesses in nearby power infrastructure. This information, alongside building rules that define to what extent defenses like flood barriers can be extended, can be used to inform improvements made to backup power systems and physical protections surrounding key sites.

Ownership and Financial Records

Public ownership and financial records can help to speed internal disaster recovery processes by ensuring all information required to file insurance claims is up-to-date and accessible. Data associated with nearby sites can also help business owners to identify ownership structures and systemic vulnerabilities associated with nearby facilities to support wider mitigation efforts.

By identifying exactly who owns nearby properties and uncovering potential vulnerabilities in their defenses and operations, business owners can protect themselves against further risks in the aftermath of crises. For example, if records reveal site owners are based abroad, business owners can pre-emptively establish lines of communication to speed future incident responses.

Permit and Inspection Records

Public permit and inspection records can provide valuable information about the physical and operational history of critical sites. By reviewing this information, business owners can identify all structural adjustments made to properties prior to their ownership, as well as uncover any past environmental issues or code violations of which they may not have been previously aware.

This information can be used to ensure all physical defenses are professionally implemented and structurally sound, as well as plan impactful improvements to strengthen and modernize physical protections. Inspection records can also reveal hidden hazards such as wiring faults or the presence of hazardous building materials, enabling owners to rectify issues as a priority.

Final Thoughts

To reasonably prepare for and address crises, business owners and leaders require efficient access to pertinent information. Knowledge is often the key to enacting a calm, swift and effective disaster response, so it pays to factor information management into recovery plans.

Public records are a great source of up-to-date, trustworthy, useful information about owned and neighboring businesses, providing leaders with quality insights into high-probability risks, as well as access to key legal and financial information needed to speed recovery processes.

By identifying and maintaining property records from trusted sources, leaders can uncover valuable information about critical sites and probable threats. By factoring this information into safety plans, business owners can improve preparedness against high-probability risks.