Leasehold Leaders: News on the Block interviews Peter Bolton King and Georgiana Hibberd of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

NOTB How do you think the Assoc. RICS brand appeals to property managers?

Peter Bolton King We live in a litigious world.   

If you’re able to say, “I’m an Associate of the RICS. This means that they are expecting me to work to the highest standards and I’m accountable”, then, I would have thought from a marketing point of view, that is putting you at a distinct advantage.  Increasingly the lenders and insurers are well aware of what the RICS stands for. Meeting those high standards from a quality assurance point of view must be a lower risk.

We believe it must have an effect on things like professional indemnity insurance. It’s a well-known brand name that has a reputation for setting standards, for acting in the public interest, (which is one of the differences between the RICS and other professional bodies who are more membership orientated).  The RICS has to act in the public interest under its Royal Charter.  It means that at times the RICS are able to stand back and give perhaps, a more balanced view than a pure membership body.

GEORGIANA HIBBERD In residential property block management the RICS is much more recognised than in some other areas of residential.  

NOTB What’s the difference between AssocRICS and IRPM?

GEORGIANA HIBBERD We developed it as a career path because once IRPM members have got the IRPM Diploma Part Two, there was no way of bridging the gap to become a chartered surveyor. Now, there is - IRPM membership has direct entry to AssocRICS, provided they take the RICS ethics module, which then allows those people to have a career progression to MRICS.

Peter Bolton King Moving forward, what place should the RICS have in making sure that we have a home for somebody, at whatever level, throughout their career - even starting to get children interested in property at school.

GEORGIANA HIBBERD From a professional point of view, the AssocRICS has one advantage to SMEs: succession planning. You can still retain your regulated RICS status with the firm if you’re an associate so people who are qualified chartered surveyors and looking at succession planning for their business find the Assoc is a very useful qualification.
 

NOTB Where do RICS stand on regulation?

Peter Bolton King  This is a very simple one. Whether on the letting or the management side, we see some appalling examples. Not necessarily from our members, but generally out there in the marketplace. It totally baffles me that the current administration aren’t prepared to accept there needs to be some element of a regulatory framework to sort this out. The government would like the “industry” to sort it out. We are not going to get the people inside the tent who don’t want to be inside the tent unless they’re forced to be.

We do not see a need for heavy handed regulation but the industry needs some government backing and help. The opposition have made it very clear they would bring back into their manifesto the original idea of licensing, of regulating -lettings agents and managing agents. It is interesting that Scotland, of course, are moving ahead on some of this.  

GEORGIANA HIBBERD Also there is a danger we will end up with different schemes which will be totally unworkable so there is a need for it to be a co-ordinated approach....

Peter Bolton King ...Between the government wanting localism and of course everybody else, whether it be on HMOs or licensing landlords and agents or the Mayor of London (who is very keen to have his own accreditation scheme).

Our UK residential policy pulls together for the first time, a number of our RICS polices of which consumer protection on the buying and selling and letting side is a priority.

NOTB  Will RICS be lobbying the Government?

GEORGIANA HIBBERD We’re not a lobbying organisation, because we’re in the public interest. We will continue to point out to the government and opposition parties why there is a need for on-going changes. It’s an opportunity again, for the RICS to be leading the way in this debate.

Peter Bolton King We also have total support on this from the likes of Which?, Shelter and others. From a consumer detriment point of view, it is terrifying there are people out there acting as letting and managing agents who don’t appear to have the first idea of what they should be doing. It surely is worrying that the government can’t see that.

This, of course, is another very big reason why you should be using a member of the RICS: client money protection. There’s plenty of examples of firms who’ve gone under having illegally stolen and used client’s money.

GEORGIANA HIBBERD Yes, it’s all very well having a licensing scheme, but if there is no sanction then it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.

Peter Bolton King   Having various individual schemes is pure dumbing down. Pay us your £40 quid and you’ve got a badge. What’s that doing for the consumer? Surely you should have to prove that you know what you’re doing? What is so crazy is that I can be closed down by the OFT tomorrow as a sales agent but I can take the sales agent off and put up “block managing agent”, and they can’t stop me. It can’t be right.

NOTB For the benefit of our leaseholder readers, what are the differences between a RICS block manager and an ARMA one?

GEORGIANA HIBBERD Well, 40% of ARMA members are also RICS members. ARMA is a trade organisation. The membership is the firm whereas with the RICS, the membership is the individual. The RICS, ARMA and IRPM, all work very well together because we all have the same interest in raising standards within the sector.

Peter Bolton King  If everybody belonged to either one of those three bodies, the majority of the problems would hopefully disappear.

NOTB  Can you update us on changes to the RICS service charge code?

GEORGIANA HIBBERD We recognise it’s not up to date at the moment but because it’s a government endorsed document, any changes have to be approved. What we’ve been trying to do is to make some minor changes to bring it up to date and in line with advice from the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW). So we were hoping to get through a quick update correction. I’m not 100% certain, at this point, whether we will actually get it through, in which case we will have to go back to the drawing board and start with a third addition to the service charge code. But last time that process took us 5 years!

Georgiana Hibberd sits on the Judging Panel at the Block Insure Property Management Awards. For more information see, www.propertymanagementawards.co.uk