BSD AGM and Annual Dinner
BSD AGM and Annual Dinner were held on 2 December 2011. We have our new office bearers and council members elected who succeeded from Council of 2010-2011. It is my pleasure to have the chance again to serve the Division in this position in 2011-2012 together with the Vice Chairman Mr Andrew Kung, the Honorary Secretary Ms Rebecca Lo, the Honorary Treasurer Mr Kenny Tse and the Council members elected as mentioned in the table on the right.
We did have a perfect closing for the AGM and the Annual Dinner with joy, laughter and warmth throughout. I believe that our new Council can continue to work in unity and harmony to promote our profession’s development and the welfare of members in the coming year.
SIN Kwok-leung, Alan
LAM Wai-keung, Andrew
LAW Chin-keung, Jason
YUE Wai-chu, Jessie
WONG Se-king, Peter
DY Wai-fung, Peter
LEE Hoi-tat, Nathan
CHAN Ka-man, Margaret
CHEUNG Man-to Arthur
CHANG Wai-yip, Daniel
HUNG Kam-ying, Caskie
PONG Yiu-po, Daniel
HO Siu-leung, Nelson
WONG Kin-yee, Billy
Communication Meeting with Architectural Services Department
A communication meeting with the senior directorates of Architectural Services Department (ArchSD) led by Director Mr K K Leung and Assistant Director Mr S W Fong was arranged on 7 December 2011 shortly after the election of the new BSD council with the attendance of Mr Andrew Kung, Mr Kenny Tse and I as the representatives of BSD and the Professional Building Surveying Consultants Association (PBSCA). This is an annual event set up by ArchSD which provides an informal platform to exchange views and ideas on surveying profession and matters of interest to the attending parties. We took the opportunity to relate the practitioners’ concern on the unhealthy fee competition to ArchSD’s projects/ consultancies and suggest adoption of two-envelope system in consultancy services tender, aiming at a more quality-oriented service delivery by the out-sourced consultancy services. On the other hand, the Director expressed his wish to have more building surveying firms applying for registration in the AACSB list of Building Surveying firm so as to ensure sufficient supply of resources to handle the forth-coming consultancy works from ArchSD. I would like to encourage the newly established private building surveying consultant companies to register as I can see there is great demand for building surveying services both from the public as well as the private sector in the coming future. Being registered in the AACSB list not only renders the firm opportunities to bid for the government and other NGO works but also provides it a quality label in competing other large scale private or quasi-government projects.
How much do you know about our BSD Council?
In this issue, I would like to introduce our Expert Determination Panel which is led by our Council members Mr Peter Wong and Ms Margaret Chan. Why should we set up this panel? To answer this question, let’s have a better understanding on expert determination!
Water seepage disputes are one of the most common disputes in buildings. HKIS has been receiving requests from parties in litigation for appointment of expert pursuant to court directions. A number of our professional building surveying members have been involving in preparing expert
reports as well as acting as expert witnesses.
Whilst expert witnesses in traditional litigation proceedings would be required to address on the causes, provision of remedial proposal does not usually fall within their scope and is not an issue before the court. The court would have greater concern on the liability and the corresponding damages, while normally the grieved party would need a solution to stop the water seepage problem. This is where expert determination should be considered as an alternative to litigation.
Expert determination has long been widely accepted and used as a form of Alternative Disputes Resolution (ADR) in other countries such as the UK and Australia. Nonetheless, it has not gained popularity in Hong Kong as other forms of ADR e.g. mediation and arbitration.
The features of expert determination were discussed in the case of Mayers v. Dlugash [1994] 1 HKLR 442. Kaplan J said at p.444:-
"Arbitration is a tried and tested method of dispute resolution where the parties do not wish to litigate their differences before state courts. Expert determination, although having been used for centuries, is perhaps not so widely known. The classic features of expert determination are:
(a) The expert makes a final and binding decision.
(b) The decision can only be challenged in the most exceptional circumstances such as where the expert answers the wrong question (see Jones v. Sherwood Computer Services Inc. [1992] 1 WLR 277; Campbell v. Edwards [1976J 1 WLR 403 and Nikko Hotel (UK) Limited v, NEPC (1991) 28 EG 86).
(c) The expert can be sued for negligence in the absence of an agreed immunity (Arenson v. Casson Beckman Rutley [1975] 3 WLR 815).
(d) The expert’s determination cannot be enforced as an arbitral award."
In brief, expert determination is a private and confidential method whereby disputing parties by agreement appoint an expert to determine a matter of fact, valuation or law in a final and binding manner.
With our expertise on building defect diagnosis, we are ready to provide expert opinion on the potential causes of water seepage, and more importantly the solution for such. Expert determination on water seepage disputes therefore can provide an effective and efficient solution for the parties in dispute to resolve the water seepage, saving parties’ costs and effort to go for full litigation.
We believe that expert witness and expert determination on water seepage disputes would be areas which our professional building surveyors should further explore. That’s why we have the Panel to promote on this area of specialization.
To echo the social and market needs on expert witness, we are preparing a list of expert witness and adjudicator for water seepage disputes so as to provide a platform for the public to access to these professional services. Here, you are cordially invited to show your interest by filling in the application form which can be downloaded from the HKIS website at http://www.hkis.org.hk/en/download_area.php?nid=4 for inclusion into the purported list of expert witness.
