Ethics Flashcards
What are the RICS Bye laws?
- Application & definitions
- Membership & registration
- Designations
- Contribution to funds
- Conduct
- Governing council, officers & staff
- Subordinate boards / committees
- Procedure
- Accounts and audit
- General
When have you acted with professional integrity?
When asked by the client to keep details of an instruction confidential, I do so. This was the case in a stay vs go situation at an office in EC2
When have you provided good quality service?
Before accepting an instruction, i ensure that I understand the client’s requirements, I am competent enough and have the means to carry out the instruction, and issue clear terms of engagement. I clearly communicate the material info informing my advice and check comparable data is correct.
When have you acted with honesty and integrity?
When advising a landlord client on a lease renewal in Aldgate where the air conditioning was not working and the tenant requested this was fixed as part of the renewal, i advised that the cost of this could be recharged to the tenant through s/c. When asked about time frames around recovery of this, i recognised this was outside of my competency and put my client in contact with a surveyor in property management whose competency this was within.
In the Aldgate lease renewal, you state it was clear in the lease that repairing the A/C was the landlords responsibility. How so?
The repairing clause stated that the tenant was to “keep the Premises in good and substantial repair and condition” and the Premises was defined in Schedule 1. The definition explicitly excluded air conditioning and so this falls under the landlords obligation.
What type of A/C was it?
VAV
What is a conflict of interest?
When a member / firm’s impartiality and independence is affected
Can you give some examples of this?
Yes, these can be personal, commercial, financial interests and relationships
Have you read anything from the RICS on conflicts?
Yes, the Global Professional Standard on Conflicts of Interest 2017 (eff. 1st Jan 2018)
In your example of a Conflict of Interest, why did you not avoid this?
It was in both parties interests for either side to act as it was:
1) Legal
2) In line with Rule 1
3) Effective management options available
4) Did not prevent myself or my firm from providing competent and diligent advice to those who may be affected
What mechanisms were put in place to manage the conflict?
Information barriers such as separate filing systems, password protection and physical separation. I set up the files and password protection myself to ensure satisfaction that this had been done correctly.
