How we support consumers

Firm complaint handling procedures

RICS members and firms provide high quality professional services to clients worldwide. It is unusual for things to go wrong, but where they do, RICS expects its firms and members to deal with complaints fairly.  

If you are a client of an RICS firm and you are not happy with the work done or the service you’ve received, you should usually raise your complaint directly with the firm using their complaints handling procedure. All RICS regulated firms are required to have a procedure explaining how they will handle any complaints made to them by clients. This should tell you who to complain to and how long the firm will normally take to respond. Using the complaints handling procedure gives the firm the chance to provide more information to you and, if something has gone wrong, offer to put it right or apologise for mistakes.

If you are still unhappy after the firm has responded to your complaint, or if the firm does not respond properly, the complaints handling procedure has to include an independent alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provider who can review your complaint and may be able to order the firm to apologise or pay compensation – we call this “redress”.

What is ADR?

ADR is a way to resolve disputes between clients and firms after an internal complaints procedure has been exhausted. It is less costly and time-consuming than having to go to Court. ADR is used to resolve complaints in lots of different sectors including financial services, energy and telecoms. You can read more about ADR on the Which? website (which.co.uk).

ADR can be used to resolve disputes between a RICS member/firm and their commercial clients (known as ‘business-to-business’), or between a RICS member/ firm and a consumer (‘business-to-consumer’).

If you are a consumer (someone who is not acting in the course of a business) the ADR mechanism will be free of charge for you to use. Because ADR is intended as a faster route to resolve disputes it considers only written evidence and does not call witnesses. Because of this, there is usually a cap on the value of disputes it can consider. Very high value cases or allegations of negligence may still need to be considered by a court.

Which ADR providers can regulated firms use?

The SRB approves ADR providers that our firms globally can choose between. The firm’s complaint handling procedure will specify which ADR provider they use. You should contact the ADR provider directly to ask them to review your complaint. If the firm does not provide you with information about its ADR provider please let us know by raising a concern.

In the UK there are three main approved consumer ADR providers, who all provide information about how to complain and what to expect from their process on their websites:

The Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR)

The Property Ombudsman

The Property Redress Scheme

These providers are independent of RICS so that they can focus solely on resolving disputes without any conflict or confusion with our role as a regulator. For our firms that work as residential property agents, we approve providers who are also approved by the UK government under the relevant legislation.

If you are a business client, or a client using a firm based outside the UK, please see the list of approved business to business and global ADR providers available on our website.

When to complain to RICS

RICS is a professional regulator and we protect the public through setting and upholding standards for qualification and professional conduct, requiring our firms to have professional indemnity insurance for their work, and undertakes assurance activities with Regulated Firms holding client money. We also provide a Client Money Protection Scheme

RICS also investigates complaints about Regulated Members for non-compliance of RICS’ Rules Standards and Guidance  We also consider whether concerns raised with us require disciplinary action to protect the public. Where it does we can impose sanctions including fines, conditions on practice, or expulsion.

However, in common with other professional regulators, we are not able to award redress to clients, which is why we require firms to have an ADR provider, because this will be a more appropriate route for many client complaints.

You can find details about how to raise a concern with RICS here. If you raise a concern that we think you should raise with the firm directly or with an ADR provider, we will advise you to do that.