Amendments to Valuers Act get second, third reading
THE proposed amendments to the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Act 1981 into the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents (Amendment) Bill 2010 is underway with the bill tabled in Parliament for second and third reading so far.
The Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents had proposed to amend the Act which seeks among others, to make it an offence for a person to aid or abet in committing an offence under the Act.
Currently, the law makes it an offence to procure or attempt to procure registration to practise under this Act by knowingly making or producing any false or fraudulent declaration, certificate, application or representation.
It is also an offence to impersonate a registered valuer, appraiser or estate agent or sell, transfer or permit an unauthorised person to use the licence issued.
The amendment bill also seeks to increase the fine that may be imposed by the Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents. It was proposed that the amount of fine be increased from RM5,000 to RM10,000 and from RM10,000 to RM25,000 respectively for offences such as fraud, contravening, failing or neglecting to comply with the law or being guilty of any professional misconduct.
Institution of Surveyors Malaysia president Elvin Fernandez says amending the Act to impose more severe penalties is justified to weed out non-registered persons from undertaking professional property management and the end result will be a well-regulated property management profession.
“The amendments to the Act relate largely to housekeeping issues; by strengthening the provisions for the valuation profession which includes property management and estate agency.
“The Bill has nonetheless, provisions for the opening up of the profession – when passed, it will allow non-valuers to own minority equity stakes in valuation firms and estate agency firms – all designed to increase the financial strength and stability of the firms, as we move to greater liberalisation of professional services in Asean and beyond.
“Management of the firms will, however, only be allowed by those professionally qualified and registered persons. There were also some loopholes that the board wanted to plug, such as those doing property management under the guise of ‘facilities management.’ This attracted some objections from various parties,” he explains to StarBizWeek.
On views that the amended Act would give exclusivity to valuers in building management, leasing management, general maintenance and facilities management, thus enriching them unjustly, Elvin says: “The so called “exclusivity” has been there since 1981 and the Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents has been regulating the property management profession. In fact, the board has been nurturing the growth and development of the property management profession as it grows with the establishment of more and more residential and commercial high-rise buildings in the country. It can be reasonably said that the board’s work is half done and the glass is now half-full. There is more work to be done yet to ensure a fully mature property management profession.”
He points out that property management is not very lucrative and fees are certainly not “enriching” as claimed by some quarters.
To reach an amicable solution that will include other non-valuers involved in property management, Elvin says: “I believe it is fair to bring all the existing bona-fide practitioners who have, at least, a certain level of education and indepth understanding of the law and the building industry, as well as other related professionals such as engineers, building surveyors and quantity surveyors, to be allowed to be registered under a separate register that should be created within the Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents.”
He says this is in line with the Government’s committed policy to liberalise the professional services that include legal, real estate, quantity surveyors, doctors and engineers, under the Asean framework by 2015. The move will open up cross-border equity participation among the different professionals within Asean.
Elvin says there was a similar exercise undertaken by the board in 1985 to register non-qualified but bona-fide estate agents to become recognised by the board. A window period of one year was granted during the exercise. Other intresting property news:
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