You have taken advice from your Director (an acknowledged authority)

1. Ethics TestThis is the RICS ethics test. A good grasp of ethics is essential for RICS members. The test consists of brief ethics scenarios, each of which is followed by five possible solutions. In each case there is one best option. Please try and select the best option.You have 5 minutes to complete the testPlease turn over to begin……

2. You have taken advice from your Director (an acknowledged authority) about a project you are working on, but you think the advice may be wrong. What should you do? a) Do nothing, the Director is a recognised expert. b) Accuse your Director of incompetence c) Speak to your Director and raise your concerns and try and clarify the situation. If this cannot be achieved then seek a second opinion. d) Speak to your Director and raise your concerns. If these cannot be resolved then ask your Director to sign off the work so that he takes responsibility for it. e) Seek advice from external experts on the subject Your firm has a clear policy on receiving gifts: you must not accept any gift that could compromise your impartiality and professionalism. You give a presentation at a conference. After you have finished, the organisers present you with a bottle of wine. What should you do? a) Refuse to accept it because it is unethical to do so b) Accept it because it isn’t a particularly expensive bottle of wine c) Accept and share it with colleagues the next day d) Accept it, then record the gift in the firm’s register of gifts e) Accept it and give it to your Director. Your firm is redrafting certain standard paragraphs for its terms of engagement. There is a section on fees that has changed, so that it now contains an acknowledgement that the firm may receive commission for various services it provides. However, it is clear from the draft that there is no intention to highlight to clients how much that commission will be (either in actual monetary value or as a percentage). What should you do? a) Refuse to use the new standard terms and continue using the old ones. As a professional you think it is right to be transparent in all fees you receive for undertaking the work b) Start using the new standard terms; they seem much better than the old ones. The whole point about commissions is that it is hard to quantify and therefore it is sufficient that the customer knows there may be commission earned. c) Question whether the correct approach is being taken on the disclosure of commission. It may be difficult to quantify commission received but that does not mean that it should be ignored. d) Use the new standard terms – it is a competitive market and any commission received is hard-earned and really nothing to do with the customer e) Use the new standard terms as everyone else is. You were advised by a potential client that lowering your original quote for a job would lead to beating a competitor and gaining the commission. Despite some doubt, this is agreed. There are now concerns that you may not be able to carry out the job satisfactorily for this fee. What should you do? a) Complete the job despite incurring a loss, even if this is not of long-term benefit to your firm. b) Withdraw from the job, despite the risk of letting down your client and damaging the reputation of your firm. c) Adjust your accounts and attempt to cover up your mistake of accepting the commission for a lower fee. d) Cut all possible corners to complete the job within the agreed quote. e) Try to renegotiate with the client retrospectively and make good the loss. You work for a company that has built a reputation on being ethical in all its business dealings. It is one of the main reasons that you wanted to work for the company. However, the firm has just won a contract to build a weapons testing centre. You can’t believe the firm tendered to do the work. You are a long-standing member of a pacifist lobby group. Your Director wants you to head up the team to build the centre. What should you do? a) Tell your Director that you think taking on the work is d) Explain to your Director that you are a member of a pacifist group, that unethical and not what the company is about. you would not find it easy to work on the project. b) Resign from the company e) Speak to your Director to question the morality of the decision of the company to take on the work. c) Report the fact the company have taken on the work to the Shareholders at their annual meeting next week.