Make a tick-sheet from the RICS Home Survey Standard’s minimum terms of engagement list, to check each instruction before you confirm it in writing

The Home Survey Standard (1st edition) says the terms of engagement must address a listed set of matters regardless of the level of service, from the subject property and the likely inspection date to the fee, cancellation rights, referral fees and conflicts, and the complaints procedure. Many sole surveyors work from their own template and can miss one when an instruction has a special request or an older or unusual property. A blank tick-sheet you copy from RICS’s own list lets you check each instruction against the list in a couple of minutes. The AI lays out the table; the facts of each instruction go in by hand in your own system, never in the AI tool.

An AI chat tool you already use, then your own word processor or practice system (the AI sees only the list of headings, never an instruction)

Steps

1. Open the RICS Home Survey Standard (1st edition) at Appendix D, “Minimum requirements for all terms of engagement”, and copy the bullet list into your own note exactly as written. Note that the list says the content changes over time and that you must make sure your terms match current legal requirements.
2. Paste only that copied list into the prompt, plus the extra headings your firm adds to every instruction (for example key collection or access arrangements), typed as headings only.
3. The AI returns a one-page tick-sheet: one row per item, with blank columns for “Where in your terms or confirmation email”, “Done”, “Date” and “Note”, and a short box for any special instruction or variation for an older or complex property.
4. Print or save it as a template in your practice system. For each new instruction, fill it in by hand, then send the written confirmation and the terms before the inspection, as the standard expects.
5. Re-copy Appendix D into the template whenever RICS updates the standard. The 2nd edition is not out yet (RICS intends to publish in Q1 2027), so keep working to the current edition until RICS announces otherwise.

The exact prompt

I am an RICS member running a residential survey firm in the UK. Below is the list of minimum terms-of-engagement matters from the RICS Home Survey Standard (1st edition), Appendix D, copied word for word, plus a few extra headings my firm adds to every instruction.

Task: lay out a one-page tick-sheet as a table with one row per item exactly as I give it, in the same order, and these blank columns: "Where in our terms or confirmation email", "Done", "Date", "Note". Under the table add a box headed "Special instruction or variation for this property" with three blank lines, and a short line "Terms issued to the client before the inspection: yes / no, date". Plain English. Do not rewrite or shorten any item, do not add items, do not add example answers, and do not give advice on what any term should say. Leave every answer blank.

RULES FOR THIS CHAT: I will give you only headings, blank fields and my own firm-level text that I have typed in. I have not included, and will not include, any client name, address, email or phone number, any property address, photograph, survey note, finding, report text or report extract, or any other private or confidential information. Use the blanks [CLIENT], [PROPERTY] and [SUPPLIER] only. Do not ask for them and do not invent any. You must not make or suggest any surveying judgement: no view on defects, causes, condition ratings, risks, repairs, value, what a report should say, or whether anything is reliable, compliant or fit to use. Do not decide whether any use of AI has a material impact under the RICS standard, do not say what any insurer or policy covers, and do not write terms-of-engagement or other legal wording. Do not fill in any entry for me: where a fact, date, decision or name is needed, leave the field blank or write [SURVEYOR TO COMPLETE]. Everything you write is a blank layout or a draft that a named RICS surveyor will read, complete and approve before it is used.

APPENDIX D LIST (copied word for word): [PASTE]
EXTRA HEADINGS MY FIRM ADDS: [PASTE]