Winning on referral of a rent review has become a lot easier.
3 October 2026(2026-10: LinkedIn) Now that chartered surveyors act for their clients as expert witness, it has become a lot easier for me to win when I’m acting for their landlords or tenants.
It helps that the surveyors acted as negotiators for their clients before the referral, but that is not essential. The determining factor is their propensity for acting as expert witness. Despite the principle that the overriding duty of an expert witness is to the tribunal, regardless of the party paying the EW’s fee, despite the RICS PS, it seems, in my experience, to be difficult for a typical EW to comply. I doubt their clients care: their client wants the result the client wants. The client leaves it to the surveyor to do the clients bidding. A client that cares about the procedure would, in my view, instruct a different surveyor from a different firm to carry out the task. A client’s surveyor likewise.
For EW credentials, how much of the experience is personal compared to that of the firm for which the EW works is a moot point. EW credentials are essential in being taken seriously. I have written about surveyors claiming to be directors of the firm when in fact they are director in name only. Wouldn’t it make sense to tell the truth when signing a statement of truth?
Reliance on pro-forma hearsay evidence without providing a copy lease of the property concerned is asking for trouble. Not allowed to rely upon what is told: an EW is expected to investigate and verify the facts for her/himself.
Sometimes I am instructed to act for the client at the 11th hour so have to request the third party to extend by a few weeks the first closing date for proceedings. A reasonable request that from experience third parties agree. One might think the other side’s EW would concur, but often they object. An EW cannot object: an EW is indifferent to the wider consequences for his client.
Inevitably perhaps where a tenant is concerned about the landlord’s proposal, the tenant will express the feeling vehemently. An EW might share the sentiment but should refrain from letting on. An EW is neutral, indifferent to the consequences for the client. Emotional outbursts have no place in professional opinion.
Where surveyors are fee-driven, the extra few thousand their firms charge doesn’t go far where a thorough job is expected. So reports often contain a great deal of padding, focus on rental value regardless of the underlying facts.
Writing a skill and choosing words carefully important when wanting a third party, reading between the lines, to agree with the writer. Pre-conceived goals in EW reports are common. The executive summary at the outset, to influence the third party, I tell third parties is an insult to the third party’s intelligence. Generally, reports are template. Bespoke take too many late nights to compose. Take a chance on getting away with it.
It’s not about clients getting what they pay for, but who they pay for.
[2026-10-09 – 1,736 views on LinkedIn]
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