We speak to David Deacon, a chartered surveyor who has spent his career in residential property. He founded Housing Disrepair Surveys, leading a team of Expert Witnesses operating nationwide in housing disrepair claims. Here, he tells us how the business came about, why impartiality is everything, and what advice he would give to any surveyor considering Expert Witness work.

The importance of this case is that it confirms that medical practitioners providing evidence as to a patient’s fitness to participate in legal proceedings are providing expert evidence. It may be termed ‘professional’ evidence but it is expert evidence. It is expert evidence because the medical practitioner is assisting the court as to matters outside the knowledge and experience of the court. In this case the court depended on the applicant’s general practitioner to understand complex PTSD, spiking of blood pressure to dangerous levels and dysphonia and how they made the applicant unfit to participate in her appeal against the order made by the court as to the disposal of her son’s ashes.

Julie Karen Hoarean v Paul Anthony Read [2026] EWHC 763 (Ch)