Director – legal status or pretentious title for an over-rated position?
24 March 2025Mar 2025 – A director (according to Practical Law) is “a person elected by the members of a company or otherwise appointed to superintend the management of the company’s affairs. Although company directors are not strictly speaking trustees, they are in a closely analogous position because of the fiduciary duties they typically owe to the company.”
In my opinion, what a director is not is someone who clearly isn’t a director in the true legal sense, but has been given a pretentious title so as to give the impression to the outside world that the person is somehow more important than he/she is.
Some years ago, a chartered surveyor so-called director of Savills made a remark in an email to me that I decided was offensive, so I made a formal complaint to the RICS. As you may know, the RICS doesn’t deal with complaints. Instead, it refers the complainant to the firm concerned to resolve. So I wrote to the proper CEO of Savills. One of his colleagues, in his apology, confirmed that the so-called director wasn’t a proper director and wasn’t authorised to make executive decisions. The so-called director also apologised and that was that. Later, when I informed the RICS of the outcome, the RICS again wasn’t interested.
I am a non-executive director of a limited company whose two directors are a commercial property agent and a chartered surveyor. I am also the director of two different unrelated limited companies. So if I wanted to boost my standing in the outside world, I could legitimately call myself a director. (I am also a Life Member of the Institute of Directors.)
Currently, for a rent review referral in which I am acting for the landlord, I am drafting my Reply to the tenant’s expert witness (“EW”) chartered surveyor’s Report. In his Report, EW says he is a director of (company name). So, naturally, I checked on Companies House and he isn’t. Therefore, it’s a lie which immediately contradicts his Statement of Truth.
I suggest that executive directors of firms of surveyors, whose habit of dishing out fancy titles that misrepresent their legal status, should remember that there are people in the real world who, when they want to know with whom they’re dealing and what they’re up against, would, as I do, check whether what they’re being told is true or a lie.
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