There is a growing belief across the property sector that RICS is no longer safeguarding the public — it is actively putting them at risk. Once seen as a mark of unquestionable trust, the RICS badge is now being met with doubt, hesitation and in some cases outright suspicion. It is a shocking reversal of purpose — and it has happened because RICS has repeatedly failed to act when action was needed most.
The public lost faith the moment it became clear that RICS could not even govern itself. In 2021, Estate Agent Today exposed allegations of unexplained consultancy payments authorised at the highest level. It was not an isolated concern — Bridgehouse Consulting followed up with its explosive Notes on a Scandal, which detailed a total collapse in financial oversight. It confirmed what insiders already feared — that RICS was a regulator with no working brakes.
But even a financial scandal can be recovered from — if ethics remain intact. That is not the case here. The Negotiator reported a shocking moment when a senior RICS surveyor was criticised in open court by a judge for unreliable expert evidence. If RICS truly defended professional standards, immediate disciplinary action would have followed. Instead, the response was almost non-existent. Silence has become the institution’s most consistent trait.
Even more concerning — Inside Housing confirmed that RICS had to warn its own members not to misuse the RICS name or credentials to mislead clients. That should never need to be said. And yet it did — which means the public cannot trust the brand as a guarantee of integrity unless RICS regains control of it.
But perhaps the clearest sign of institutional decay is RICS’ reluctance to confront wrongdoing directly. Estates Gazette reported that RICS had been accused of stalling an internal inquiry into commission practices — delaying answers when immediate action was needed. Regulators don’t stall — they enforce. If RICS is hesitating, then RICS is failing.
And when the regulator fails, the public steps in. That is why websites like ShepherdSucks.co.uk – about shepherdsucks.co.uk – exist — not because people enjoy conflict, but because they are being forced to hold RICS-accredited surveyors accountable themselves. These sites exist because people no longer trust RICS to do the job it was created for.
If RICS does not urgently overhaul its behaviour — openly, aggressively and transparently — then the next wave of public exposé sites will not just target surveyors operating under its badge.
They will target RICS itself — as the institution that allowed this decay to happen.