Purchasing a service is risky. You do not know what you will get until you get it. Products are tangible: you can see, feel, and sometimes taste or hear them to judge their quality. Unfortunately, you cannot do that with a service. Quality can only be determined after the service has been delivered. But there is a better way…

Turner Drake is the first, and currently the only real estate consulting company in Atlantic Canada to be registered to the ISO 9001:2008 quality standard. We are also registered as a firm regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) for the 2015-2016 year. We are one of only two real estate firms in Atlantic Canada to be RICS registered.

What is the RICS Regulation?
RICS is leading the initiative for a worldwide standard of professional conduct in the land, property and construction sectors. Registered members are required to adhere to three major regulatory components:

1. RICS Rules of Conduct
2. Continuing Professional Development
3. RICS Ethical Standards

These standards are upheld by a risk-based monitoring system to ensure quality services are provided by registered firms. For more information about the program, visit the RICS website.

How is registration achieved?
To satisfy the RICS standards, we had to establish that we had the following programs in place:

• A complaints handling procedure.
• A training program for all employees (we have a 7-year training program that includes 27 in-house training modules [500 hours], completion of the University of British Columbia’s Diploma in Urban Land Economics (DULE) and Bachelor of Business in Real Estate (BBRE) degree, and mentored “on the job” training.
• Professional Indemnity Insurance to ensure that if a claim is received, a designated insurer will respond (not the insurer in place when the negligent act occurred).

What does this mean for me?
We follow the RICS fundamental principles in every aspect of our business:

1. Ethics: You can feel confident that you are dealing with an ethically sound firm.
2. Protection: Independent Professional Indemnity Insurance.
3. Security: We have a clear and transparent procedure in place to resolve complaints as fairly and efficiently as possible.
4. Client Care: Our staff regularly update their skills and knowledge through training and education to give you the best service possible.

We follow the values of the RICS regulation in each and every assignment we undertake. Purchasing real estate services can be a risky business, but we have substantially reduced that risk.