The RPSA Avis 4

In my personal experience, I have completely lost confidence in RPSA as a consumer protection body.

I instructed a surveyor who was using RPSA branding and, at the same time, publicly presenting himself with qualifications and RICS-style status that he did not actually hold. When this was challenged, he later described those qualifications as “typos” and “old templates” in writing.

Instead of clearly distancing themselves from this and taking transparent action, RPSA then “administratively corrected and reinstated” his membership with continuous effect from September 2024 – effectively backdating it. That change was made after concerns had already been raised and only then allowed him to refer my case into The Property Ombudsman (TPO).

TPO have confirmed they can only look at service complaints and can typically award around £200, and they do not deal with negligence or the real financial losses. In my view, this backdated membership has had the effect of giving a problematic surveyor access to a redress scheme that was never designed to deal with the real damage caused.

From my experience:
• RPSA membership did not give me confidence in standards or enforcement.
• When serious concerns were raised about misleading qualifications, the outcome felt more like protection of a member than protection of the consumer.

My honest opinion now is that RPSA operates very differently to RICS in terms of oversight and consumer assurance. Personally, I would treat RPSA membership as a red flag rather than a reassurance and would strongly advise anyone relying on a surveyor to check their qualifications directly with the awarding body (e.g. RICS, SAVA etc.) and not assume that RPSA affiliation alone guarantees anything.

This review reflects my own experience and documented correspondence with RPSA, TPO and the surveyor involved.

In total, our family will be out of pocket to the tune of £50,000 with structural costs, Building costs, Court fees and third party witness statement and solicitor fees.

Avoid any Surveyor registered with this company at all costs. The surveyor we used for a level two survey has missed subsidence, cracking lintels, broken drainage and electrics that haven’t been fitted to standard.
It appears to be a membership body for estate agents who can make a lot of notes and take a lot of pictures but who fail to understand what’s actually happening in those pictures. Legal action will be following once we have received advice from Solicitors.

This company RPSA, seems to be operating fraudulently, We had a surveyor fraudulently claim to be a RPSA member why he done a report for a property we purchased, We had major issues, and a bill for over £20,000, We called RPSA, whom claimed the member was suspended and had no right to use there branding or LOGO, I have a email from the surveyor saying the use of RPSA was a TYPO, he refused to provide his insurance details, then somehow we got a email from RPSA saying they are backdating the membership. What is legally incorrect, then we got a response from the Surveyor laughing at us saying he is a member '' good luck '' winning the court case, what was a big smack in the face.

Legal action pending, RPSA does not act professional at all, and be warned of NICK LAKE, LAK2268 membership number. Avoid at all costs.

legal action pending.

These guys appear to have scammed us. Employed them to do a survey, they farmed it out to a "member". The survey was pathetic even though we paid for the top level 3. In all it cost us over £20k to get stuff sorted. We complained, all they did was back the guy to the hilt, even though his report didn't meet thier own guidelines. Neither they or the surveyor Michael Whitelock will confirm if he had any professional indemnity insurance. If we take him to court he's protected by an inactive, limited company, so the most we can get back is £50!
I wouldn't use these people, use RICS, when you look into the company they've had more directors resign than any other company I've ever looked at. BEWARE!