50 Must Knows Flashcards
(50 cards)
Are you aware of some of the aims highlighted within the RICS
Business Plan for 2021-22?
▪ Continue to support the profession as economies recover from Covid-19 and seek to minimise any increases in the cost of subscription levels.
▪ Utilise any surplus in cash generation to pay back furlough
monies received via the UK government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
▪ Maintain and increase demand for RICS qualifications with a primary goal to ensure RICS qualifications remain relevant for future generations and that increased numbers of members use RICS to meet their knowledge and training needs.
When are the Rules of Conduct Changing?
▪ The existing Rules of Conduct have been in place since 2007
and these will remain valid until 1st February 2022.
▪ The New Rules of Conduct will take effect from 2nd February
2022.
What are the New Rules of Conduct?
▪ Rule 1. Members and firms must be honest, act with integrity
and comply with their professional obligations, including
obligations to RICS.
▪ Rule 2. Members and firms must maintain their professional
competence and ensure that services are provided by
competent individuals who have the necessary expertise.
▪ Rule 3. Members and firms must provide good-quality and
diligent service.
▪ Rule 4. Members and firms must treat others with respect and
encourage diversity and inclusion.
▪ Rule 5. Members and firms must act in the public interest, take
responsibility for their actions and act to prevent harm and
maintain public confidence in the profession.
Explain your understanding of Rule Number 1?
▪ Having reviewed the example behaviors in adhering to Rule 1 RICS
Members and firms should not allow themselves to be influenced
improperly through the acceptance of work referrals, gifts or hospitality.
▪ Members and Firms must also be sure to identify conflicts of interest and
not provide services or advice where these conflicts of interest occur.
▪ This could be a scenario where you have reduced impartiality due to an
existing relationship, for example being friends with a Main Contractor who
has subsequently been selected to submit a tender would form a conflict of
interest.
Explain your understanding of Rule Number 2?
▪ To ensure compliance with Rule 2, Members and firms must only act for
clients where they have the necessary knowledge, skills and resources to
carry out the work competently.
▪ Firms must supervise any employees or subcontractors undertaking work
on their behalf, for example requesting that a Junior Surveyor undertakes a
complex valuation due to resourcing issues would create problems in
achieving compliance with this Rule. Instead an experienced and suitably
qualified surveyor should be asked to undertake the valuation.
Why did the previous Rules of Conduct change?
▪ The previous rules had been in place since 2007.
▪ Following research and consultation with RICS Members, Firms and
Members of the public, the majority voted in favour of replacing the
existing Rules of Conduct and separate Global Professional and Ethical
Standards.
▪ This was to provide a single document to enable greater clarity for RICS
members and firms.
▪ There is now a greater focus on clearer example behaviors, understanding
evolving technology and tackling climate change.
Talk us through your understanding of the changes to the Rules of Conduct?
▪ The Rules of Conduct October 2021 Global Practice Statement will overhaul
the previous separate documents:
• Rules of conduct for Members.
• Rules of Conduct for Firms.
• Global Professional and Ethical Standards.
• Appendix A of the Rules of Conduct now contains the professional
obligations of Members and Firms.
What is the Levitt Report?
▪ The Levitt Report was commissioned by the RICS following a Treasury management audit in 2018.
▪ Prior to the Audit the RICS had to extend its overdraft facility by circa £3m due to inaccurate cashflow forecasting.
▪ The treasury management audit offered a ‘no assurance verdict’ on RICS internal financial control procedures and following this the Levitt report was commissioned as an independent review.
▪ Following the report, the RICS accepted each of Levitt’s recommendations including:
• The RICS Governing Council are to have more oversight over internal dealings of the RICS.
• The RICS Governing Council are to be briefed by the Management Board as opposed to a single CEO.
• The RICS Governing Council are to oversee executive management bonuses.
What are the professional obligations of members?
▪ 1. Members must comply with the CPD requirements set by the RICS which requires 20 hours of CPD for each calendar year, 10 hours of which must be formal CPD.
▪ 2. Members must cooperate with RICS.
▪ 3. Members must promptly provide all information reasonably requested by the Standards and Regulation Board, or those exercising delegated
authority on its behalf.
Explain your understanding of Rule Number 3?
▪ As an RICS member or regulated Firm we must also be sure to understand
a clients’ project specific requirements before acting on their behalf.
▪ The clients’ scope of services should be agreed along with any exclusions
and timescales for achieving each of the deliverables before signing up to
formal terms of engagement.
Explain your understanding of Rule Number 4?
▪ The RICS also expects its members to respect the rights of others and treat
others with courtesy.
▪ We need to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and look to eliminate any
instances of discrimination on the basis of age, disability, gender,
pregnancy, race, religion or sexual orientation.
▪ RICS members and firms also need to adopt a no tolerance policy of
bullying or harassment.
Explain your understanding of Rule Number 5?
▪ Members and firms are required to question practices and decisions that
they suspect are not right and raise concerns with colleagues, senior
management, clients or the RICS.
▪ When making public statements we need to ensure these do not undermine
public confidence in the profession.
▪ When receiving and processing complaints, we need to ensure these are
dealt with promptly, openly and professionally.
▪ In complying with Rule 5, a useful sense check to ensure compliance is to
ask ourselves if we would be comfortable in standing behind our actions if
these were brought into the media or a public forum.
What are the offences of the Bribery Act?
The offences are:- • Making a bribe. • Receiving a bribe. • Bribery of a foreign public official. • Failure of a corporate entity to prevent bribery on its behalf.
What companies does the bribery act apply to?
The legislation applies to all UK Entities and includes associated Persons
for example sub-consultants and external advisors.
What procedures can companies put in place to prevent bribery on their
behalf?
There are six principles of prevention companies should put in place:- • 1. Proportionate Procedures. • 2. Top Level Commitment. • 3. Risk Assessments. • 4. Due Diligence. • 5. Communication. • 6. Monitoring & Review.
Under the Bribery Act, under what circumstance is a facilitation payment
permitted?
▪ The only circumstance in which it is OK to make a facilitation payment is when you are under duress.
▪ For example if there is a real and present risk or danger to “life, limb or liberty”.
▪ If you or your companions are under immediate physical threat.
▪ You should put safety first, make the payment and report the matter immediately.
▪ Or as soon as is practicable to your manager or your ethics compliance contact.
Are you aware of any RICS Guidance notes on Covid-19?
▪ I am aware of the RICS ‘Covid-19 Guide to Surveying Services’
which contains a range of guidance notes to work safely and in
line with government guidelines through the Pandemic.
▪ This provides specific guidance on:-
• Physical Inspections for Residential Properties.
• Physical Inspections for Non-domestic Properties.
• Residential Valuations and Surveys.
• Reopening of the Housing Market.
• Reopening of Commercial Buildings.
What impact has Covid-19 had on your area of surveying?
▪ From a Quantity Surveying perspective, recently I have found
there to be significant material cost increases and a reduction
in the availability of materials.
▪ In particular the cost of steel per tonne has increased in the last
year by around 22%.
▪ Products such as plastic piping, plasterboard and labour
availability have become increasingly scarce.
▪ Due to significant cost increases the financial viability of
developments has been affected.
How have you helped clients with COVID issues?
▪ I have supported my clients by looking to secure early order placement of
materials in order to negate the risk of further price increases and material
availability issues.
▪ I have also kept clients updated on impending price increases when made
aware of this by key suppliers.
▪ Through early notification, contingency plans have been put in place to
increase cost certainty and negate further material price increases and lack
of availability.
What precautions do you take in your day to day surveying concerning
Covid-19?
▪ I practice inline with the RICS Covid-19 guide for Inspections and Visits for
non-domestic properties which requires me to:-
• Maintaining Social Distancing.
• Minimising physical contact with building occupiers where possible.
• Ensuring I comply with the H&S procedures being operated by the site
team.
• Securing as much information as possible from the client prior to the
visit and as part of the pre-inspection research.
• sanitise equipment in line with current Public Health Guidance,
periodically and as often as practical
What are the contractual implications for your projects around Covid-19
delays and shut downs?
• The projects I was working on during in Covid-19 were all impacted as
a result of the pandemic.
• On my projects that utilised JCT Contracts, as a standard the JCT form
included a Force Majeure clause that was called upon.
• This entitled the Contractor to an extension of time for the shut downs
that were imposed by the client to take stock and evaluate the Health &
Safety standards of the site.
• The Contractors also sought loss and expense claims for the additional
preliminary health & safety items such as temperature scanners,
masks, and perspex barriers along with the impact that social
distancing had on slowing down construction operations.
• For my projects that adopted NEC contracts a compensation event was
raised entitling the Contractor to additional time and costs for the
period of delay and additional prelims caused as a result of the
pandemic.
How was the Covid-19 compensation event administered on your
projects that utilised NEC forms of contract?
• Under the NEC form an early warning notice was issued by the
Contractor within 8 weeks of becoming aware of the impact of the
pandemic.
• A further early warning notice was issued with notification of the
decision to suspend the works in order to take stock and review the
Health & Safety operations of the site.
• Because these early warning notices were in place it entitled the
Contractor to a compensation event however if they were not raised it
may have affected the Contractors entitlement under the NEC form.
• Following issuance of the early warning notices a meeting was
arranged with the Contractor, Client and PM to discuss the entitlement
to additional time and money. It was agreed that an extension of time of
2 weeks would be granted for the period of the shut down and a further
2 weeks due to the slowing of operations as a result of social
distancing.
Are you aware of any industry guidance specifically relating to Quantity
Surveying that has assisted throughout the pandemic?
• The Construction Leadership Council has launched the Covid-19 Cost
Assessment Toolkit.
• This serves as a guide for better cost forecasting by recommending a
standard methodology to incorporate cost impacts resulting from the
pandemic and provides clarity around the assumptions and
exclusions that have been made.
• It has also collected industry wide data from the supply chain to help
keep surveyors and clients informed on potential cost impacts going
forward.
• Having access to this data has allowed me to improve the accuracy of
my reporting into clients to help them keep informed on ongoing
projects and assess the financial viability of future schemes.
How has Brexit effected the UK Property & Construction industry?
▪ Movement of people is now restricted with free movement having ended on 31st
December 2020 and from 1st January 2021 the UK has a new global immigration
system.
▪ Employers are now required to register as sponsors in order to recruit from
abroad.
▪ To employ someone from outside the UK the individual must meet job, salary
and language requirements.
▪ With the supply of labour being more restricted this has led to labour cost
increases and a reduction in the availability of labour.
▪ Under the UK’s new trade agreement with the EU, most traders will not have to
pay tariffs when moving goods between across borders but will have to meet
relevant Rules of Origin for their products.
▪ The price of goods moving across the border is expected to increase due to the
additional border checks and administrative work.
