About >> Property >> Dispute resolution

The RICS Dispute Resolution Professional Group is the home within RICS for members involved in all areas of dispute avoidance and resolution (commonly referred to as ‘D.R.’).

These include:
• Conflict avoidance
• Arbitration
• Adjudication
• Independent expert determination
• Mediation
• Expert witness and advocacy services.

Disputes can arise in relation to the following (given as non-exhaustive examples):
• Landlord and tenant matters, including rent reviews, lease renewals, dilapidations claims, service charges, insurance
• Environmental and planning matters; boundary and neighbour issues
• Agricultural holdings-legislation
• Buildings contracts and sub-contracts
• Housing matters
• Professional negligence, professional fees, and partnership duties.

Arbitration, adjudication, expert determination and mediation are frequently referred to as ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution’ (ADR), processes that are seen to offer an alternative to litigation in various contexts. Surveyors will often be involved in one or more of these processes by way of acting as a mediator (trying to facilitate consensual agreement between disputing parties), or as a dispute resolver/tribunal (e.g. acting as an arbitrator, expert, adjudicator, planning inspector) aiming to determine the dispute. Surveyors may be called upon to prepare expert witness reports for courts and tribunals, and also customarily act in the role of lay advocate in a number of tribunals, presenting a case for their client.

The RICS Dispute Resolution Professional Group’s key objectives are to deliver professional standards, guidance and technical information to members, and to raise the status of surveyors providing dispute avoidance, management and resolution services in the marketplace. The RICS Dispute Resolution Professional Group has approximately 20,000 members affiliated to it. The professional group works closely with RICS Dispute Resolution Services (DRS) – the latter has a number of key functions: it makes appointments upon request of suitable RICS accredited and vetted dispute resolvers from its various specialist panels, and quality assures the recruitment, training and monitoring of such panel members. It also manages dispute resolution services on behalf of clients, develops bespoke DR schemes for industry bodies and designs DR services for new markets.

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