Passing off as an MRICS
30 June 2026(2026 June: LinkedIn) Many years ago, acting for a tenant, the landlord’s adviser was a chartered accountant. For my due diligence, knowing who I am dealing with, I contacted the Institute of Chartered Accountants to check the adviser was in fact a chartered accountant. No. The ICA immediately contacted him and required him to remove all mention from his website, notepaper, etc. He complied. The ICA thanked me for having brought it to their attention.
Last weekend while browsing on-line I came across a firm of commercial property surveyors of which I’d never heard. I haven’t heard of every firm, but what interested me was this firm’s several pages about rent review and why the firm should be instructed. The person to contact is an MRICS so I went onto RICS Find a Member and couldn’t find anyone of that name.
That didn’t surprise me. RICS Find a Member is an unreliable resource because to find someone you have to know two things you might not know: (1) their location, and (2) the name the RICS knows a member by, as distinct from the name the member uses on a daily basis*. Same evening, I emailed the RICS unable to find the person on FaM and asked whether a chartered surveyor; I attached pdfs of the firm’s website pages, and links.
[ * Some years ago, I was obliged to contact the RICS direct when I wanted to know whether the landlord’s surveyor was a chartered surveyor. I’d asked the surveyor direct for the name the RICS knew him by, but he wouldn’t tell me.]
The following morning, RICS Membership Support Person replied that the links suggest that the reference to MRICS is published on their official website. Person had checked the RICS member’s (sic) directory and the RICS system and confirmed that Mr X is not an RICS member as of that day. But the confirmation does not confirm that Mr X may not have been a member in the past.
That afternoon I replied to the Person, cc complaints@rics.org that surely the RICS should do something about it that day – immediately contact Mr X and tell him to remove all references to MRICS on the firm’s website and anywhere else. Either he is a chartered surveyor, or he isn’t; Person confirmed he isn’t.
RICS Complaints require completion of an on-line form, or by email. I had tried email by my cc: pointless. This form has been designed by myopia: having a narrow view of things. Nowhere on it is anywhere to report someone pretending to be an MRICS. Questions for which answers are optional must be answered regardless, or else the form won’t submit. I entered 123456 in the field ‘membership number’.
The Regulatory Support Team will review my concerns and respond within 42 working days. Meanwhile Mr X can continue taking on new business under false pretences.
(07/2026 LinkedIn views: >28,500)
Return to Article