RICS surveys - what's so special?

​We expect members of any profession to provide us with the best possible advice and guidance whether they are doctors, financial advisors, lawyers etc, but what are you really getting with an RICS survey?

The industry standard?  The mark of a professional? A 'brand' you can trust?

Maybe, sometimes, but we regularly find some dreadful advice provided to some of our clients by members (MRICS) and even fellows (FRICS) of the RICS.  Confusing details like the type of construction - of fundamental importance - the age of the property, the causes of defects, the recommendations for remedial work - all utter nonsense.

We would like to say that this is because not all RICS surveys are undertaken by building surveyors, but MRICS building surveyors can be just as bad.  RICS building surveys and home reports are most often carried out by 'surveyors' whose specialism is valuation or estate agency and not building surveying.  They are, however, allowed to carry out building surveys by the RICS....

Why, then, do we all want this industry standard when the standard is often found to be poor?  The RICS ethics, which we also comply with, state that, where a surveyor isn't sure he is suitably experienced to survey a certain building, he should state this to his client and refuse the instruction.  Does this happen?  Absolutely not since most chartered surveyors (building surveyors or otherwise) clearly know very little about traditional construction.

Ask what type of surveyor is going to carry out the survey of your house before you instruct them.  If it is a valuation surveyor - no matter how long they have been doing building surveys for, refuse it.

If it is a building surveyor, ask specifically about their training and knowledge of traditional buildings and see them squirm.

We know what we are talking about

​The RICS surveys may identify some defects but they don't provide any explanations as to their causes and seldom provide any recommendations for their remedy.  We provide evidence as to the causes of defects and clear recommendations for their remedy, repair or mitigation, taking full responsibility for the content of our reports.

​Also unlike RICS reports, we don't isolate and protect ourselves with huge caveats because we know what we are talking about.

Do you still want an RICS survey?

What should you expect from an RICS survey?

I can only tell you what our experience and that of our clients is.  It is generally poor, sometimes very poor and often just plain wrong.  The issue is, if it is poor, then you may be able to muddle along and make your purchase still work.  If it is poor, the advice you get may well cost more by the recommendations to pay for additional surveys - damp, structural, roof, etc... when the surveyor should be able to diagnose these issues.  If it is just plain wrong, then you will end up down a very deep rabbit hole of damp proofing which will simply make matters worse.  If you are a seller, then a bad survey may make your house unmortgageable by having a damp proofer hold you to ransom declaring rising and penetrating damp.

Now, we go on about dampness a lot in our website but this is because the presence or absence of water has fundamental effects on any built structure whether it is heave, subsidence, various types of decay, woodworm, or spoiled decoration.  Moisture is such a common issue and its causes relatively staright-forward to diagnose, but only if you understand the basic of building construction and the properties of different materials.

We read phrases like "walls are rendered and painted" regularly but what does this even mean?  Is the render cement based or lime based, is the paint masonry or lime, or, indeed, is any of it necessary or relevant?  It can be of fundamental importance but RICS surveys are not always carried out by 'building surveyors' and not many of these building surveyors understand basic issues like the way in which moisture moves through structures.

The result is that you are guided towards the damp industry - whose commercial imperative is to sell damp proofing, not to diagnose defects and help remedy them.  A crack though a rendered wall is generally recommended to have a structural engineer report on it when it is often, following an understaning of the method and materials of construction, fairly staright-forward to diagnose as a failure of the thin cement render coating and not a structural defect.  This is not always the case, but it is mostly so - only if you understand the basics of construction.

And what do you really get for your money?

Excerpt from a survey in Helensburgh from a well known national surveying company "A reputable timber and damp specialist should carry out a full and thorough inspection of the entire property with exposure works prior to purchase." 

The fundamental problem is that none of them are reputable...

From the same report "The advice of roofing contractors should be obtained prior to purchase."  Again, you are left to potentially obtain recommendations for repairs that are unecessary and must be taken on trust.  We use drones....

And a three sentence report on all the external walls - despite defects affecting them being the cause of the dampness inside - "Normal levels of maintenance are recommended."  What on earth does this mean to you a prospective purchaser?

The result?  a £10,000 retention on any mortgage and a blank cheque for a damp proofing company - because the surveyor did not understand basic defects.

This is not intended to denegrate all RICS surveyors but it should also be understood that the RICS licences non-building surveyors to carry out Levels 1, 2 and 3 (building) surveys, so you may have a residential or valuation surveyor surveying and advising on your 19th century house while understanding very little about the methods and materials that may have been used in its construction.

If you ever read either 'rising' or (one of my favourites) 'penetrating' damp, in a report then demand your money back.  Similarly, if you receive an RICS report and get a recommendation to instruct a damp proofer or member of the PCA to survey 'the whole property' then demand your money back and make a complaint to the RICS because they are not doing their fundamental duty in acting in your best interests by providing you with the correct information.  Instead, they are passing you on to an unscrupulous industry that will happily take your money.  Unfortunately, the work the damp proofing industry does will ignore blocked drains, leaking windows, cracked render, ground levels, incorrect materials, etc.  If you have read the rest of this site, this will be repeated - repeatedly.

We, on the other hand, provide as much clarity as possible.  We use drones so can inspect chimneys, roofs, gutters, flashings etc, and we dress to crawl around roof spaces - not a 'head and shoulders' survey from the loft hatch.  We lift the edges of carpets (don't tell anyone) to allow moisture testing of floorboards but are happiest when we can get below floors to crawl around the solum looking for defects.  We regularly see leaking drainage from bathrooms and kitchens, uninsulated and unsupported central heating pipes, rot, woodworm, the odd dead cat, historic fag packets and debris from previous tradesmen.