Reviewed by Matthew Bartlett, Director · Last reviewed 8 July 2026
If a purchaser is threatening a claim on a Level 2 or Level 3 report you signed, if a lender has raised a valuation query that reads like the opening of a claim, if a building surveyor has been named in a defects claim, or if you have identified something on a completed instruction that could develop, this entry sets out how a UK surveyor should think about the next 24 to 48 hours. It covers notification under the claims-made wording, why timing is critical, what RICS expects in parallel, and what your broker does at this point. Read it once, then pick up the phone.
Surveyors' PI is written on a claims-made basis. The wording responds to claims and notified circumstances during the period of insurance, not to matters that arose during it but were never told to the insurer. The Insurance Act 2015 sits underneath this: section 3 imposes the duty of fair presentation at inception, renewal and any material variation, and section 13A gives the insured a route where an insurer has breached the implied term to pay claims within a reasonable time. Late notification is one of the largest single technical reasons claims run into difficulty at coverage stage. Notifying a circumstance does not commit you to admitting anything — it preserves the year's cover.
A claim under a surveyor's PI wording does not have to be a court proceeding. It can be a letter from a purchaser, an email from a lender, a Notice of Adjudication in a construction context, a complaint via the property redress scheme the firm belongs to, or a note on a matter file that a reasonable partner or director in the firm would read as a possible claim. The wording standard is that a fact, matter, event or circumstance which may reasonably be expected to give rise to a claim must be notified. The test is objective. Once someone senior has identified it, the practical clock has started.
The RICS Rules of Conduct for Firms apply. Rule 9 requires firms to maintain PI insurance that meets the standards approved by RICS, including the mandatory RICS-approved wording, and to run off cover for closed firms as set out in the current RICS PI regulations. Alongside PI, the RICS Complaints Handling Regulations require every firm to operate an in-house complaints procedure with a two-stage process and access to an approved redress scheme. RICS disciplinary processes can run alongside a civil claim. Red Book Global Standards apply to valuation instructions, and departures from the Red Book will be part of any technical defence. The Building Safety Act 2022 — particularly s.135 extending limitation for defective-dwelling claims — has material implications for building surveyors instructed on residential higher-risk buildings and for surveyors giving pre-purchase reports on affected stock.
Do not respond to the client, lender or complainant on substance until you have notified your broker. Preserve every version of the report, the site notes, the photographs, the diary entries and email trail. Do not add to or annotate a report or notes after the event. Do not admit liability, offer a fee reduction that reads as an admission, or float a settlement figure in correspondence. Notify your broker straightaway; the broker handles the notification to the insurer in the form the wording requires and manages what happens next. If a Notice of Adjudication has been served, or a redress scheme complaint deadline is running, tell the broker in the first conversation — that changes the sequence. Where the matter may need RICS notification, treat that as a separate track.
A named broker who has run surveyors' notifications before will take the summary from you, prepare and submit the notification to the insurer in the form the RICS-approved wording requires, protect your position on scope and late-notification questions, and manage the appointment of defence solicitors from the insurer's approved panel. From there the broker deals with any reservation of rights letter, the reserve conversation, coverage disputes around Red Book departures, valuation SAAMCO-scope questions, and BSA-related limitation issues on residential work. Apex is a broker, not an insurer or a defence firm; the broker handles the notification and manages the process with the insurer's appointed defence panel. This is where broker experience earns its keep.
Not because Apex clients never have claims. Surveying, and valuation in particular, is a long-tail exposure — defects and negligent-valuation claims can surface years after the report was signed. Apex clients renew because when a matter arose, the notification was made properly, the year's cover attached, and the firm reached the next renewal in a position to place terms on the merits rather than under a cloud.
Notification urgent?
If a matter has just arisen, call now. Late notification is one of the largest single reasons claims get declined. A named broker will pick up the phone and start the notification with you.