Chartered surveyors in the United Kingdom

A Chartered surveyor in the United Kingdom is a surveyor who is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors ("RICS"). Until the end of the 20th century, some members were members of the ISVA ("Incorporated Society of Valuers and Auctioneers"), but this organisation merged into the RICS in 1999.

In the reforms of the RICS in the 1990s, the former divisional structure of the institution was abolished and the use of the alternative designations retained solely for the use of members to retain clarification when informing clients of specialist areas of expertise. Despite the attempt to unify the profession under one title chartered surveyor there is very little in common across the whole range of disciplines that are within the grasp of all members. The core membership is based in the construction profession, and another large sector deal with property ownership and management. Beyond these cores there are marine, land, rural and antiques specialists.

Chartered surveyors in the core of the profession may offer mortgage valuations, homebuyer's survey and valuations, full building surveys, building surveyors' services, quantity surveying, land surveying, auctioneering, estate management and other forms of survey- and building-related advice. It is not usual for any individual member to have expertise in all areas, and hence partnerships or companies are established to create practices able to offer a wider spectrum of surveying services.

The common public experience of chartered surveyors is in the process of obtaining a mortgage loan. Generally the surveyor is appointed by the lender after collecting a fee from the prospective borrower. The mortgage loan may be granted if the surveyor can confirm that the equity in the property in the present market is at or above the level of the loan requested.

Typically, chartered surveyors can be engaged in three types of real estate survey.

A mortgage valuation will be required by any mortgage lender as a condition of obtaining a mortgage loan. The homebuyer may take the option to instruct the same surveyor to carry out a "RICS HomeBuyer Report" or a "RICS Building Survey" (sometimes called a "Structural Survey"), usually at additional cost. When the surveyor is instructed in this combined role, the mortgage valuation is still produced for the lender, and the HomeBuyer Report or Building Survey is additionally prepared for the borrower. This arrangement can avoid the potential conflict of interest where the surveyor has as client both the lender and the borrower in the transaction. Because of the ethics and professional liability division, borrowers should note that the lender's survey is produced solely for the lender and the surveyor will not extend any liability for loss or omission to the borrower. Since reform of the RICS Red Book of valuation practice in recent years, the definition of a mortgage valuation has been deleted. It is now a market valuation which is the same definition given to the valuation in the RICS HomeBuyer Report. Before it was removed from the RICS Red Book the valuation for mortgage lending had different criteria from the market valuation.

...
Wikipedia