Expert witness: RICS issues conflict of interest warning over high-volume claims

Surveyors have been warned they face serious repercussions if they provide expert evidence for solicitors acting in bulk housing disrepair claims.

The warning appeared in a practice alert from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) reminding members of their legal, professional and regulatory obligations when acting as an expert witness in all cases - but especially housing disrepair and other high-volume work.

High volumes of claims can lead to behaviours that 'harm the public' and present particular risks for expert witnesses, the RICS said. Poor behaviour includes ‘claims managers or solicitors acting in high-volume cases seeking to instruct the same expert in a large number of claims, creating a conflict of interest because of the amount of fees generated and the risk of losing revenue if the expert witness reports do not meet the expectations of those issuing the instructions’, the practice alert states.

‘These behaviours do not comply with our standards for members and are likely to lead to serious consequences for RICS members, including regulatory sanctions and legal consequences.’

Members are told they must disclose regular reliance on the same instructing party for multiple instructions, ‘particularly where the member derives a significant proportion of their income from that party’. Any financial dependence must be disclosed to the tribunal in the expert’s report and expert witnesses ‘must not enter into any conditional or success-based fees’. The expert witness’s primary duty ‘is to the court, not the party instructing them’, the practice alert states.

The latest warning comes a year after RICS issued an urgent practice alert on members’ duties amid growing concern about the quality of expert witness functions that were being performed.

RICS found itself under the media spotlight earlier this year after president Justin Sullivan’s work as an expert witness was criticised by the judge in the widely-reported moth infestation judgment. Sullivan denies any wrongdoing.