1). A Surveyor is a professional focused on consumer protection.
Chartered Surveying is a frequently misunderstood qualification, discipline and interest for professionals. In the below I will explain three key misconceptions regarding surveying, and show how a surveyor is not a sales-person, but instead is a professional focused on consumer protection.
A Chartered Surveyor is technically a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (“RICS”). Becoming a member of this Institution means gaining “the world’s leading professional status in land, real estate, infrastructure and construction”. The Institution is an international body, and the below facts reveal the first misconception of Surveying:
2). Chartered Surveying is a not a well-established or relevant profession.
- RICS was founded in London as the “Institution of Surveyors” by 49 surveyors on 15 June 1868.
- It received a Royal charter as “The Surveyors’ Institution” on 26 August 1881.
RICS is therefore a historic body, the modern role of which is to safeguard consumer protection. Properties are notoriously “opaque” from both an investment and an ownership perspective. Put simply – you might need one person to tell you whether your roof is in disrepair, another person to confirm if there are hazardous materials in the roof, someone else to tell you whether you could get planning permission to raise the roof, another person to tell you the cost of a new roof, and someone else entirely to tell you the value inherent in raising the roof.
The fact property investment and ownership is so complicated, and potentially rewarding, leads to the second common misconception:
There is just one type of surveyor
- In the above example you would need five surveyors: a building surveyor to check the structural integrity of the roof; a materials surveyor to check for asbestos; a development surveyor to advise on planning permission; a quantity surveyor to confirm the cost of a new roof; and a valuation surveyor to tell you the resultant value from a new roof.
While this may seem “over the top”, each type of surveyor (of which there are quite a few) has a specific specialism that helps to unpick the intricacies of property ownership and investment.
3). The subdivision of responsibility is designed to protect the consumer.
To make this point, RICS recognises various specialisms within the three professional groups of Land, Property and Construction. These include all of the following: Arts & Antiquities Environment; Building Control; Commercial Property; Geomatics; Building Surveying; Dispute Resolution; Minerals & Waste; Project Management; Facilities Management; Planning & Development; Quantity Surveying & Construction; Machinery & Assets; Rural Dilapidations; Management Consultancy; Telecoms; Insurance; Residential property; Valuation; and Building conservation forum.
This brings us to the final misconception:
The property industry is not regulated
- In the commercial sector, a firm that lacks RICS-accreditation is unlikely to receive business from investors or owners.
The RICS’ goal to protect consumers stretches to the residential sector; if in doubt, use a surveyor.
