When a person completes a proposal form for short term insurance, such as car insurance, you will be asked to give full details of the item you want to insure. In the case of car insurance the item will be the car you wish to insure.  An insurance company may send out a surveyor to confirm the details of items being insured – there is a saying in insurance terms that “the surveyor is the eyes and ears of the insurer.”

The surveyor will complete a survey request form listing full details of the insured item(s). In car insurance the services of a surveyor is not often used but surveyors are used in all business insurance and even when insuring private homes nowadays.

With car insurance, when taking out comprehensive insurance, you will be asked to take your car for an inspection to an authorized inspection site. Even though this inspection does not cover all the details that will be covered when a full survey is done, it provides the insurance company with sufficient details of the car it is going to insure. Today, many insurance brokers will carry out surveys on behalf of the insurance company. Any complex risk will require a qualified surveyor to carry out the survey.