Guide to Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisations

Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisations are organisations that pay fees and provide firm related regulatory information on behalf of their Registered Valuer employees but are not an RICS Regulated firm.

Who can be a Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisation?

Any organisation which employs valuers and is not subject to mandatory firm regulation can apply to be a Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisation. There are two types of Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisation; Commercial and Not for Profit.

Commercial Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisations can be any organisation employing valuers that is either not eligible for, or has chosen to opt out of, firm regulation and provides valuation services to fee paying clients.

Not for Profit Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisations can be any organisation employing valuers that does not offer valuation services to fee paying clients; is a public sector body; or any other not for profit organisation e.g. local authorities, government departments, charities.

What are the benefits of being a Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisation?

Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisations provide regulatory information in bulk on behalf of their Registered Valuer employees. This avoids the need for each valuer to provide this information individually.

Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisations pay any sponsored valuer registration subscriptions and application fees directly to RICS on behalf of their Registered Valuer employees.

Not for profit Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisations also benefit from the same discounted fee structure offered to RICS Regulated Firms, reducing the overall cost of registering multiple valuers. Commercial Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisations are required to pay the full individual fee per sponsored valuer.

What are the obligations of being a Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisation?

Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisations are required to pay any subscription fees as and when they fall due.

Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisations are required to provide any information which is reasonably requested by RICS to support registration applications and ongoing regulatory compliance monitoring on behalf of sponsored valuers. This may include but is not limited to professional indemnity insurance details, records of complaints, company procedures and valuation files.

Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisations are required to provide the name and contact details of a nominated regulatory contact officer who will be the point of contact for any regulatory and fee related matters. This information must be kept up to date at all times.
Status as a Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisation will be removed if the organisation fails to comply with these obligations and all payment and regulatory information requests will revert to the individual registered valuer(s).

Compliance with the rules and requirements of the valuer registration scheme remains the responsibility of the individual registered valuer.

How will information be shared?

Information provided by sponsoring firms and sponsored individuals will be used to assess the individual's eligibility for valuer registration, to risk assess applications and to monitor compliance with the scheme rules.

Details of outstanding sponsoring firm actions will be provided to the sponsored individual(s) where it may affect their registration and/or ability to comply with the scheme rules.

Details of a sponsored individual's registration status will be shared with the sponsoring firm(s).

What is the sponsorship process?

RICS professionals can register a Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisation on the RICS Professional Portal. As part of the registration process the applicant will be asked to select the number of Registered Valuers they wish to sponsor.

Once registration is complete the applicant can access a unique Sponsorship Code which must be provided to all sponsored individuals. The Sponsorship Code can be used multiple times based on the number of sponsorships requested during the application process. Additional sponsorships can be purchased from the RICS Professional Portal as required.

Sponsored Registered Valuers will need to enter the Sponsorship Code as part of their individual registration application and at each annual renewal.

A new Sponsorship Code will be provided to each Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisation as part of the registration renewal process each year. It is important that renewal is completed on time to ensure valid Sponsorship Codes are available to the sponsored Registered Valuers.

Commercial Sponsoring Non-Regulated Organisations must pay £120 per Valuer (or local equivalent).

The above figures are exclusive of VAT. Please note that firms in the UK (this includes the Channel Islands) will be charged VAT at a rate of 20%.

If a code is purchased over 6 months into an organisation’s twelve month subscription period, a further 50% discount is applied.