Advice for those considering closing down their practice (Global version)

• Agree the closure date (with other partners or directors if necessary).
• If the firm is insolvent, seek appropriate advice.
• Inform staff and take any necessary legal steps to end their employment, or allow them to seek government support if available.
• Inform clients of the firm and seek instructions.
• Deal with client money outstanding in your client account.
• If you have professional indemnity insurance notify your professional indemnity insurers and arrange run-off cover.
• Make arrangements in respect of files and digital records you are holding to keep them safe and confidential for as long as required.
• Notify former clients for whom you are holding leases or other original documents.
• Confidentially destroy any documents you do not need to keep (bearing in mind the need to retain documents for tax and professional indemnity purposes).
• Inform RICS, apply to deregister your firm and ensure your contact details are up to date.
• When you have ceased to practise, ensure that anyone trying to contact you will be notified that you have closed.
• Consider who else should be contacted about the closure of your practice.

You will need to make a decision about the date on which the firm is closing, taking into account the steps that you need to take below. This will allow you to communicate clearly with clients, staff and others.

If your firm is insolvent there are likely to be legal requirements to be met. There is also an ethical consideration – the ethical principle of acting with integrity applies in the context of an actual or potential insolvency, including avoiding misleading creditors or others and avoiding wrongful or other forms of improper trading.

Check if your government provides advice about insolvency or if there are any charities or other bodies that provide resources or advice. You may need to contact an insolvency practitioner.

You should also inform RICS if your firm is insolvent by e-mailing regulation@rics.org.

The emotional and financial wellbeing of any staff you employ will naturally be central to your decision-making and plans, so it is important to understand both their rights and the support the government is currently providing. 

Check if your government has published any advice on employment rights, or if there are any relevant charities that provide support or help in your region. Some governments have schemes to help staff who are being laid off. If this is the case in your region, research what you need to do to ensure staff are eligible for these schemes and provide the relevant information to them.

We know that this will be a difficult time for your staff as well as you. Try to communicate with them as early and as clearly as you can, and allow for emotional reactions to the news.

Contact current clients as early as possible to let them know that you are closing so that they can arrange for another firm to take over ongoing work and so you can return their client money or transfer it to another firm. If you know there is an important deadline coming up, warn the client about this. Also consider whether you could give a summary of the services they will need and/or attach important documents to make it easier for your clients to contact another firm about taking over the work.

Ensure that any keys or other client property held can be returned.  

Remember that it is for the client to decide which firm they want to take over their matter. If you are able to sell your practice or make arrangements with another firm to take on work, you can inform clients of that and allow them to make the choice. Bear in mind that if you hold clients' money, you do so on trust for the client and you need their (properly informed) consent to transfer it to someone else.

If there is an urgent need to transfer files to another firm before contacting clients, because there is a risk, for example, that an office will be repossessed and files removed by a landlord, you and/or the new firm will need to contact clients urgently and seek consent properly while taking steps, working together, to identify and manage conflicts.

As a matter of good practice, you should also notify any former clients for whom you hold documents, for example leases. That may be an opportunity for them to collect such documents and reduce your future archiving cost.

Try to deal with all client money before you close by, for instance, sending money to clients or others, paying disbursements, and billing for your outstanding costs. Any withdrawals must be in accordance with the Rules of Conduct and the obligation to keep client money secure. Following the closure of the practice, you must deal promptly with any monies remaining in the client account, or received after your practice closes.

If you are holding client money for clients who cannot be traced and more than three years has passed since you received the money you can donate it to a registered charity https://www.rics.org/uk/upholding-professional-standards/standards-of-conduct/client-money/.

If another firm will be taking over the practice from you, you should seek consent from your clients to transfer client money to the new firm’s client account, or to another firm if the client chooses not to instruct your successor firm.

When you close your firm, whether temporarily or permanently, you must ensure that all previous work is covered by appropriate and adequate professional indemnity cover if your firm is registered for regulation with RICS, and should consider this even if it is not. If you have professional indemnity insurance to provide this cover you should inform your insurer that you are closing your practice.

If the closure is permanent contact your broker to discuss obtaining run-off cover. Run-off cover is necessary because of the way professional indemnity insurance operates. This is on a 'claims made' basis rather than 'losses occurring' basis. This means the responsibility for paying the claim lies with the insurer on cover when the claim is made (or the insurer is notified of circumstances that may give rise to a claim), which will not necessarily be the insurer on cover when the alleged negligence took place. Consider with your broker how long you should retain run-off cover for in order to meet the requirements of the Rules of Conduct.

If you are temporarily closing your firm, contact your insurance broker to explain the situation.

Following the closure of your practice, you should take care not to practise or be held out as practising when tying up loose ends. For example, you will not be practising if you submit bills of costs, account to clients for monies held on their behalf, or arrange for the disposal or safekeeping of old files and documents. However, if you were to respond to a query from a client or tenant, you will be practising and this may be doing so without appropriate indemnity insurance or the other client protections in place through being a regulated firm.

If you need to use your firm's notepaper to deal with outstanding administrative tasks, you will need to adapt the notepaper to make it clear that the firm has closed. When taking telephone calls after the firm has closed, you should make sure that it is made clear to the caller that the firm has closed.

Bear in mind that you have obligations to protect your own and client interests to retain certain documents for appropriate periods.

Consider any relevant limitation periods that would apply to claims that could be made against you, so you can set a sensible retention policy for records in case you need to defend a claim.

You are also likely to need to keep records for tax purposes and there may be legal requirements to keep certain records.

Storing closed files can be one of the highest costs of closure. Files should not be held indefinitely, and you should have a retention plan for how long files need to be kept. Consider whether you can hand files back to the former client, or destroy any files that are outside your retention period to reduce the number of records that need to be stored. You could also consider whether files can be kept in electronic form or whether another firm could take over storage of the files. Files must be stored in an orderly way, so that you can access them if needed later.

Also remember that you will need to continue to have access to any records kept digitally. Consider how these will be stored. You may need to continue to pay for cloud storage and should ensure that passwords are stored securely in case they are needed in future.

You need to bear in mind the following points:

• You must continue to keep your clients' affairs confidential.
• Some of the papers on the file may belong to the client. Some firms reserve the right to destroy the file after a specified time in their terms of business or agree this with the client at the end of the retainer. If your practice did not do this, you will need to assess the risk involved if you destroy files without the client's consent, both in terms of a potential claim against your indemnity cover and a complaint to RICS.
• If you continue to store the files, you will need to consider data protection requirements and make sure the files are stored securely.
• Original documents, such as leases, should not be destroyed and you should attempt to return these to clients.

When you leave your office ensure that no confidential information is left behind. If you are selling or otherwise disposing of computer equipment or mobile phones make sure any confidential information is removed before disposal.

If your firm is registered as an RICS regulated firm. you will need to apply to RICS to be deregistered. Information about how to do that and what information is needed is available at https://www.rics.org/regulation/regulatory-schemes/firm-regulation/staying-compliant.

This is not necessary if the closure is temporary. However, it would be a good idea to inform RICS that you are temporarily closing so that we have the information if any clients contact us. You can e-mail regulation@rics.org.

Whether you are closing permanently or temporarily, check whether your contact details on the RICS members portal are up to date so that we can contact you if we are contacted by clients who need access to their papers or client money you may be holding.

As soon as you have closed make sure that:

• Notice of closure is posted on the door to your offices.
• A message is put on your telephone.
• The closure is notified on your website.
• Your notepaper is amended to make it clear that the firm is no longer practising.

Include an emergency contact number or e-mail address in these notices so that former clients can contact you if necessary. Check any answerphone or e-mail address regularly for a reasonable time after you close.

Arrange for the redirection of your mail to a home address.