The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is launching new standards and guidance at Mipim on how professional bodies can identify and manage conflicts of interest.
The organisation will present the mandatory requirements on the first day of Mipim (14 March) in a global professional statement applicable to all chartered surveying disciplines. 'The statement will provide clarity for RICS members/firms and give end-users greater confidence by creating consistency of interpretation of the existing rules of conduct,' said RICS CEO Sean Tompkins.
'It sets out the high-level principles for the appropriate identification and management of conflicts across all areas of RICS practice and geographies. Professionals will still need to exercise judgement, and take into account the knowledge and experience of the consumer and if safeguards cannot reduce the threat posed by the conflict to an acceptable level, the professional should remove themselves from the relationship,' he added.
According to the RICS, conflicts of interest may occur where a surveyor or their firm acts for clients with competing interests at the same time such as advising both the seller and buyer of a commercial property simultaneously; or has other obligations that detract from their relationship with the client, such as acting as expert witness while having an interest in the outcome of proceedings; or has conflicting duties to diff erent clients, for example, acting for two or more parties competing for an opportunity.
In the UK market, for example, dual agency is a particular concern to the commercial property investment market. Multiple introductions, whereby a single firm represents several buyers for the same investment opportunity, incremental advice where an agent is approached to provide advice related to a purchase or disposal that is incremental to an existing instruction to advise the buyer or seller are also sources of concern.
