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Keywords International standards, Surveys, United Kingdom
Abstract The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (PICS) has, over a period of more than 25 years, provided guidance and mandatory advice to valuers providing valuations in the UK in the form of a series of appraisal and valuation manuals. In May 2003, the latest edition of these manuals was published: The RICS Valuation and Appraisal Standards. One of the principal aims of the new (fifth) edition was to reflect the increasing international status of the RICS. As a result the new "standards" will clarify the distinction between standards, which are of relevance to members worldwide, and those that are specific to practice in the UK. Effectively, the new book is implementing the RICS policy of adopting and supporting international valuation standards.
Introduction
The new RICS Valuation and Appraisal Standards (colloquially know as the Red Book) came into effect from the 1 May 2003 (RICS, 2003). The Standards, as with previous editions of the manual, only concern themselves with "process" and "bases of value". They do not deal with methods of valuation; the choice of the appropriate method still lies, quite rightly, with the valuer.
The International Valuation Standards (IVSC, 2001) are no longer seen as an alternative to the Red Book. The RICS fully supports the IVSC and the IVSC standards and, indeed, the principal bases, applications and definitions are from the WS.
History of Red Book
The history of valuation guidance in the UK dates back to the 1970s' recession. At that juncture, there was substantial criticism of the valuation profession from both without and within. The RICS responded by establishing a research programme into valuation methods and by the production of guidance notes (the original Red Book).
This was a start but the original guidance was non-mandatory and only related to asset valuations. Thus when there was bankers' disquiet in the early 1990s, the RICS joined with the British Banking Association (BBA) in a joint working which resulted in a new valuation guidance on bank lending being published in early 1994 (RICS, 1994). In a second and more far reaching initiative, the Mallinson Committee (Mallinson Report, 1994) was set up to review all aspects of the commercial property valuation process, which resulted in...