Client influence on valuation: perceptual analysis of the driving factors.

"--I have been exposed to the complexity of running the affairs of fully qualified professional people, probationers and students. Off all the categories, the fully qualified people have been by far, the most difficult to manage. The issues have invariable been those of materialism and unbridled ambition--"

In order to test whether there is a relationship between the size of firm, the amount of experience and education an estate surveyor and valuer has and their perception on the clients' influencing factors, the estate surveyors and valuers' questionnaire responses were further analysed using Chi-square tests. The results of these tests are set out at Appendix.

There appeared to be no statistical association between the size of firm, amount of experience and education of estate surveyors and valuers and their opinion on the potentials of the three variables: integrity of valuer or valuation firm, importance of the valuation outcome to the client and client size to affect client influence. This does not entirely rule out a relationship as it may be that, in responding to the question on the variable, estate surveyors and valuers have in mind a minority of cases. Nevertheless, the results suggest that estate surveyors and valuers would need to be re orientated towards guiding against client influence.

4. CONCLUSION

This paper empirically examines the factors potentially impacting on the extent of influence clients may possibly exert on estate surveyors and valuers and valuation outcome. Three factors, integrity of valuer or valuation firm, importance of the valuation outcome to the client and client size, were ranked; through mean rating point, as the three most significant clients' influencing factors from the view point of responding estate surveyors and valuers. The rating of these factors appeared to be a reflection of the problem of non--compliance of estate surveyors and valuers with the professional code of conduct, weaknesses in the current mortgage valuation practice in the country and the highly competitiveness nature of the valuation industry. These problems, if not urgently addressed could further affect the already damaged professional credibility of estate surveyors and valuers in the country. Consequently, the regulatory bodies would need to set up a mechanism to constantly monitor the activities of estate surveyors and valuers with a view to ensuring strict compliance with the institution code of conduct.

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