Non-members are expected to take note of them too, as they aim to raise standards across the whole industry.
Valuers are now adopting the term ‘Personal Property’ in place of chattels to describe assets, such as art and antiques that are not permanently attached to land or buildings. The new term ties in better with international practice and accounting standards.
The upgraded regulations aim chiefly to clarify the terms and conditions under which valuations are undertaken and to set out specific exclusions.
For instance, they are designed mainly to apply to valuations for the purpose of insurance and taxation and do not apply where advice is tendered in respect of buying and selling at auction.
Valuers are being advised that letters of engagement should include details of both the purpose and subject of the valuation, as well as the interest to be valued (where others hold an interest in the property being valued).
Around a dozen other requirements cover everything from setting out the type of property to be valued and how it is used by the client as the basis on which the valuer’s fee is calculated.
The RICS have set out a full list of requirements under the new regulations at www.rics.org/redbook.
As well as ensuring best practice, the new regulations aim to offer upgraded protection against claims for negligence on the part of valuers.
Independent art surveyor and valuer Paul Britton set out the new regulations and their implications to delegates at a seminar held at the RICS’s London headquarters on December 14.
Entitled Maintaining Standards and Managing Risk, the seminar also welcomed specialist arts lawyer Pierre Valentin, of Withers LL, who advised the gathering on standards of care required from valuers under English law and, importantly, how to deal with insurance on behalf of clients without falling foul of Financial Services Authority rules.
He also focused on situations in which valuers might be called as expert witnesses, explaining how they could protect themselves by issuing terms that set out the conditions under which that could take place and fees that should be paid.
Mark Dalrymple, managing director of loss adjusters Tyler & Co, rounded off the event with a session on covering client’s property and legal liabilities.
Because it was oversubscribed, the RICS will re-run the seminar on February 9. To book your place, visit www.rics.org/artsandantiques2010.
By Ivan Macquisten
