New regs will hit surveyors

Surveyors who provide advice on insurance will either cease to offer such a service or will increase their fees if the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) powers are extended to include the general insurance market, a leading quantity surveyor has warned.
The new rules mean chartered surveyors and other professionals working within the construction industry will face a "prohibitive" cost and will need additional time to comply with the proposed Regulations, according to Frank Gainsbury, owner of FR Gainsbury Chartered Quantity Surveyors in Haywards Heath.
"Such advisors will either simply opt out of providing professional advice or alternatively pass the additional cost on to clients in the form of extra fees," he said.
The Regulations form part of the EU Insurance Mediation Directive and are due to come into force on 14 January 2005.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is lobbying the government to withdraw the provisions of the new regulations as they relate to property and construction.
RICS president Nicholas Brooke has written to the Chancellor Gordon Brown to ask for a meeting to discuss "a more practical and sensible
way forward".