Ethics, rules of conduct and professionalism - Level 2:

Question 1

• Can you provide a real-life example of 1 of the 5 ethical standards?

Answer 1

• To take responsibility.
• I carried out an end of tenancy inspection and wrote the wrong gas meter reading wrong.
• I submitted this to the landlord who submitted it to the Utility company.
• The landlord came into the office and was fuming.
• Having, realised the mistake I immediately apologised and held up my hands as it was my mistake.

Question 2

• Give me an example of when you were required to obtain references for tenants/ purchasers?

Answer 2

Every prospective tenant I request references.

These consist of Bank, Employer, Character and Previous Landlord if they have one

A credit check is also carried out by Homelet.

Question 3

• Explain when you have gone through your company’s Conflicts of Interest procedures?

Answer 3

Each time we take on a new survey instruction.

Question 4

• What are you looking for and how do you find the information?

Answer 4

• I am looking to see if we have already surveyed the subject property or if the vendor is known to us.

Question 5

What experience have you had of conduct issues?

Answer 5

• Myself personally, NONE.

Question 6

• Have you ever been involved in a situation where a conflict of interest has arisen?

Answer 6

• Yes. A property slipped through the net as the client stated it was Flat A rather than flat X. My colleague had already carried out a survey on the property for a previous client and as per our report the previous client pulled out of the sale. Once we were at the property an we had realised the situation we immediately reported to our client that we would not be able to act in this circumstance.

Question 7

• I have re-written our terms of engagement to conform with the upcoming changes with the Home Survey Standard. What did you do?

Answer 7

• I have incorporated the different RICS Guidance Levels which show what is included within each level of survey
• I also include the RICS benchmarks between the different levels of surve
• I get the clients to sign these which states that they have read and understood each level of service.

Question 8

• I conducted an open house and a prospective purchaser requested me to provide information which would help him in his offer for a fee. What did you do here?

Answer 8

• I politely stated unfortunately it was against Company Policy.
• I reported to my superior when I returned, and the Managing Director took over the final offer negotiations.
• As I was young my colleague took over the final dealings to keep me protected at the time.