Last Updated on September 8, 2026
The trade routinely overstates this, which is a shame, because the accurate version is still a good argument and it has the advantage of being true.
What the government’s own register says
The GOV.UK Regulated Professions Register entry for chartered surveyor, read on 8 September 2026, records:
- Regulation type: accreditation.
- Regulator: RICS.
- Nations: United Kingdom.
- Legislation: RICS Royal Charter 1881.
- Restrictions: none, restrictions apply to use of title only.
So the instrument is a Royal Charter, not an Act of Parliament, and the restriction is on the title rather than on the activity. We looked for a statute making it an offence to describe yourself as a chartered surveyor and did not find one. We are recording that as not found rather than as proof none exists, but it is the honest position and your copy should reflect it.
Compare that with architects, where section 21(1) of the Architects Act 1997 creates a criminal offence with a £2,500 maximum fine per offence and the regulator publishes its prosecutions. That is a different order of protection, and a surveying firm claiming the same thing is making a claim a competitor can check.
The one statutory hook, and it is on names
The enforceable line runs through Companies House. The government’s list of sensitive words and expressions, read on 8 September 2026, includes:
- Chartered. To use this word in a proposed name you must provide a letter from your professional body confirming you are authorised to use the title.
- Chartered Surveyor. To use this expression you must provide a letter or email of authorisation from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
The word surveyor on its own is not on that list. So anyone may register Smith Surveyors Limited. Registering Smith Chartered Surveyors Limited requires RICS authorisation.
The firm test, in RICS’s own bye-laws
Bye-law B3.1.1 gives the designation: Fellows use FRICS and Professional Members use MRICS, and both may use the designation Chartered Surveyor.
Bye-law B3.1.4 sets the firm test for styling a business as Chartered Surveyors:
| Business structure | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Sole practitioner | Must be a Chartered Member |
| Partnership | 50 per cent or more of partners are Chartered Members |
| Company | 50 per cent or more of directors are Chartered Members |
That is a real test with a number in it, and it is one most firms never explain to a client. Explaining it is a small, quiet way of saying we meet a threshold the firm down the road may not.
RICS firm regulation is a separate thing again
Confusingly, being a firm of chartered surveyors and being an RICS-regulated firm are not the same status. Registration requires:
- At least 25 per cent of principals, meaning a senior manager, partner or owner, to be qualified RICS professionals holding MRICS, FRICS or AssocRICS.
- A named Responsible Principal.
- Agreement to comply with the RICS Rules of Conduct for Firms.
- An annual return completed in the firm’s RICS account.
The base firm registration fee is not published on the registration page, the staying compliant page or the regulatory fees page. What is published for 2026 are the scheme fees: Client Money Protection at £232.88 for one principal rising to £15,007.50 for fifty or more, and the Designated Professional Body scheme from £232.88 to £3,260.25.
Valuation, and what the FCA actually says
Another place the trade overstates. There is a regulatory requirement, not a statutory reservation of valuation work to RICS members.
MIPRU 1.3.2R requires an MCD creditor to use reliable standards for a valuation carried out by the creditor. MIPRU 1.3.3G, which is guidance rather than a rule, names three acceptable standard-setters: the International Valuation Standards Council, the European Group of Valuers’ Associations and RICS. MIPRU 1.3.4R requires appraisers to be professionally competent and sufficiently independent of credit underwriting, with valuations documented in a durable medium.
Separately, the RICS Valuer Registration Scheme is mandatory on RICS members doing most valuation work, not on the market. A non-RICS valuer is not committing an offence. VRS had 15,736 members on RICS’s own 2025 figures.
The register a client can actually search
Three free public checks, all read on 8 September 2026:
| Check | What it shows |
|---|---|
| RICS Find a Surveyor | Firms providing an independent surveying service that employ at least one qualified Chartered Surveyor or AssocRICS member. Basic and standard listings are free |
| RICS Find a Member | All active qualified RICS professionals globally, with name, membership number and links through to disciplinary decisions and forthcoming hearings |
| Published Regulatory Outcomes | Name, membership number, location, charges, findings and sanction, with publication periods set by the Sanctions Policy |
Those publication periods are worth knowing: no finding or a caution is published for one year, a reprimand, undertakings or fines for three years, and conditions for the duration of the conditions or five years, whichever is longer. Expulsion gets a press release unless a panel directs otherwise.
In 2025 RICS regulation received 6,488 new concerns, opened 622 investigation cases and closed 627, heard 52 Regulatory Tribunal cases and issued 43 sanctions.
The marketing use of that is simple and honest. A firm with a clean record can say so and point at a public register that would show otherwise. Very few do.
How to write it accurately
Three sentences that are all true and none of which overstate:
We are a firm of Chartered Surveyors, which under RICS bye-laws means at least half our directors are Chartered Members. We are an RICS-regulated firm, which requires at least 25 per cent of principals to be qualified RICS professionals and a named Responsible Principal. Both our members and our disciplinary record are publicly searchable on the RICS registers.
That is more specific than what most competitors publish, it invites verification, and nothing in it can be picked apart.
Common questions
Is chartered surveyor a protected title?
Yes, but by Royal Charter rather than by statute. The GOV.UK Regulated Professions Register classifies it as accreditation under the RICS Royal Charter 1881, with restrictions applying to use of title only. The statutory element bites on company and business names, where chartered and chartered surveyor are sensitive words requiring authorisation.
Can a non-RICS surveyor do a house survey?
Yes. Surveying is not a reserved activity and there is no offence in calling yourself a surveyor. What a non-member cannot do is style themselves or the firm as chartered, or register a business name containing the word without authorisation.
Does a mortgage valuation have to be done by an RICS member?
Not as a matter of law. FCA MIPRU 1.3.3G is guidance and names RICS as one of three acceptable standard-setters alongside the IVSC and EGoVA. The RICS Valuer Registration Scheme is mandatory on RICS members, not on the market.
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