Speaking at the mortgageforce annual conference in Derby, Copland took part in an “ask the expert” panel debate where each member was asked to give their opinion on how the valuer shortage could be tackled.
Copland said: “We have been looking at the whole valuation process and considering which tasks could be taken away from the surveyor and given to a valuation assistant.”
He suggested collecting the keys and obtaining comparables would be two ways of cutting down the time it takes a surveyor to deal with one property.
Richard Sexton, director of business development at e.surv Chartered Surveyors part of LSL Property Services, said that this was an idea that they had already started to
implement in part.
He said: “We have recruited 50 graduates in the last three months and while they are undergoing their training they are assigned to an existing surveyor who acts as a mentor and they do the running around and the leg work for those valuers.”
Sexton said that although it is still early days for the new approach to breaking up the surveying role it is beginning to have an impact particularly in the South East where the main problem is.
But Sexton said that the pressures faced by the surveying industry are forcing it to innovate.
He said: “This is certainly a model which we are looking at more long term. To have a technical assistant or an administrative system could certainly be one part of the solution.”
