RICS faces member challenge to legal action on Hips

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors could be forced to call an EGM over its decision to launch a judicial review against the government over Hips, after nearly 150 members have signed a petition calling for the immediate launch of Hips.

The petitioners believe that once 200 members sign the petition - called ‘RICS members for the immediate launch of Hips - the professional body will be forced to hold an EGM in order to discuss its members’ complaints. However RICS claims the petition would need 910 signatures to go to its governing council.

The petition reveals that the body did not consult its own members on whether it should launch a judicial review against the Government. The petition also includes a signature from a senior member of RICS’ residential faculty board, Graham Ellis, a managing director at the Survey and Valuation Company, who claims a lot of residential faculty board members did not know about the judicial review.

Ellis says he was surprised that the judicial review was done without consultation, particularly without consulting those members of RICS who were heavily involved in Hips.

SSH Chartered Surveyors partner Margaret Grafham, the non-RICS member who has started the petition, says: “A large body of RICS members believe that RICS has done exactly what it claimed the Government has done in that it hasn’t consulted its members or stakeholders and has acted in a heavy handed way.”

The petition says: “We, as members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, demand the withdrawal of the Judicial Review against the government. We also demand to have a weekly update as to the total number of Domestic Energy Assessors and Home Inspectors that have been accredited to date by the RICS. All signatories membership numbers will remain confidential until presented as a whole to the RICS under the terms of its charter.”

An RICS spokeswoman says: "Government ignored RICS’ repeated requests for proper consultation and RICS decided, in the public interest, to launch proceedings calling the department to account for its failure to carry out this consultation. As a decision making process, proper consultation with RICS members was conducted in accordance with RICS' governance structures.”

Source Tanya Powley - 02-Jul-2007