RICS Practice Alert: Housing Disrepair Claims

If you are involved in civil litigation, there is no better updating blog than Gordon Exall’s Civil Litigation Brief (imho), and that blog alerted me to the fact that the RICS has issued a practice alert for its members on housing disrepair claims.  This is significant, as that blog identifies, not for what it says (which does no more than set out the CPR obligations for experts in civil litigation), than for the fact that the RICS thought it necessary.  Any of us who have been involved in disrepair litigation will be aware that issues can arise around what counts as expert evidence and as to its quality.  The issues seem to arise as a result of high volume claims managers/solicitors asking for completion of pre-populated templates or what I would call CTRL+V reports, and conflicts of interest which can arise when the same expert is instructed in a large number of cases.

It is (as always) worth reading the Civil Lit blog and the RICS practice alert.  If you are into this evidence, the above link also links to a webinar on 14th May.