Home survey standard 2nd edition: A progress update

As part of RICS' commitment to operating in the public interest, the Home Survey Standard establishes best practice and high-quality standards in residential property surveys in the UK. Its core purpose is to ensure excellence in services provided, meet changing consumer needs and foster trust in surveyors’ work. Feedback from members and RICS Regulation, however, highlighted the need to strengthen some areas of home surveys in addition to providing further clarification to reflect consumer insight and technological changes.

Reviewing the standard

To maintain the integrity of the standard as the market evolves and consumer expectations shift, RICS launched a comprehensive programme to update it. This included extensive research and engagement:

• Member and consumer research: ran a survey of 325 RICS members and a UK consumer survey of over 1,400 homeowners to understand their experiences with home surveys.
• Stakeholder engagements: conducted consultations with RICS boards and committees (Residential Property Professional Group Panel, Knowledge and Practice Committee and Standards and Regulation Board), and external bodies such as CEDR, The Property Ombudsman, the Home Buying & Selling Council and the Homeowners Alliance.
• Expert development: spent over 70 hours across more than 20 meetings with the Author and Expert Group refining the draft standard.
• Industry engagement: presented to over 1,600 people at various events, meetings and conferences including Surventrix, SAVA training days, Legal & General, e-Surv and RICS Residential Property conference.
• Public consultation: ran an eight-week consultation (19 August – 14 October 2025), during which we held and participated in multiple webinars, conducted polls on social media and directly reached out to industry stakeholders for further comment.
   

The work undertaken through this programme has been significant, and in December, I joined RICS as project lead to guide the standard through its next critical phase.

My background in property and construction, including over 20 years working as a chartered surveyor and running my own RICS-regulated practice, shapes how I approach this work. That experience reinforces what RICS is committed to, ensuring this updated standard is clear and practical for members and the public, underpinned by a rigorous member-led review process, and final recommendations assessed by an independent regulatory team.

Since joining, I have been immersed in reviewing the consultation responses with the author and Expert Group. Below is a summary of what's emerging and how we plan to take it forward.

Initial observations

We heard from many of you, especially SME firms, with over 1,000 comments received as part of the consultation. This level of engagement emphasises the importance this standard holds for all of us.

A consistent theme coming through in the feedback is the need for the current draft to be clearer and more concise in its requirements. As we work our way through the responses, we will be considering how prescriptive the standard should be, how surveyors remain competitive by following it, as well as making sure the mandatory requirements ('musts') and recommended practices ('shoulds') are clear.

The final standard will also include a Basis for Conclusions summarising responses and how we addressed them.

Where we are now

We are currently in the analysis phase of this programme and value the level of detail included in the feedback, all of which we are reviewing line by line and will be revising the approach to this standard accordingly.

We are not just reading the 1,000+ comments but considering the meaning and implications of each. Each comment raises multiple questions, so we focus first on the underlying concerns before deciding how to respond.

This phase of the process can be lengthy, particularly when there are a lot of responses to review, but it is a necessary step so we can create a standard that is right for the public and the profession.

What happens next

Once we have worked through the consultation responses and agreed on amends, the standard will go through further stages of review by member-led professional panel groups and boards, made up of experts and practitioners, before the final stage of regulatory approval. These include:

• Editorial review to ensure clarity and consistency
• Residential Professional Group Panel review
• Knowledge and Practice Committee review and approval
• Final approval from the Standards and Regulation Board
   

Each of these stages can result in refinement to ensure the final standard is robust and fit for purpose.

We will update the Home survey standard page with the final standard once this process is complete.

Staying engaged

We welcome healthy debate about the proposals and what they mean for members, the industry and the public. We ask that discussions remain factual, stay respectful, and focus on genuine professional concern.

We are committed to transparency around the process and will share an update on our progress and next steps by the end of March.

Meanwhile, if you have questions or would like to share your thoughts, you can stay in touch via discussion in the residential sector group on the myRICS community.