The resolution of the Saudi Authority for Accredited Valuers (Taqeem) has entered into force from Jan. 1, 2016, which decrees the necessity of getting the Authority's temporary membership for the real estate people who have the right to practice the profession, no later than the end of the last year. The Authority stressed that no one is entitled to practice the profession for any reason till he gets the membership. Thus their valuations wouldn't be adopted by the official authorities. Specialists and real estate observers expected that the Authority's resolution will have positive effects on the sector and on its activities and programs, indicating that the most important benefit of the resolution is putting an end to the randomness of the real estate valuation and keeping the rights of citizens and the financing authorities. The Saudi Authority for Accredited Valuers considered last year (2015) as the final date for practicing the real estate valuation without getting its temporary membership, and mentioned that this resolution goes hand in hand with the ministerial resolution which decrees that everyone who practices the real estate valuation shall get the Authority membership before 20/3/1437 H.A. According to Essam Al-Mubarak, Secretary General of the Saudi Authority for Accredited Valuers, the Authority proceeds granting the temporary membership to those who meet all the conditions and requirements, indicating that those people have the right to practice the real estate valuation services in the kingdom, and all the services relating to courts to prove the rights particularly in seizure, implementation, inheritance distribution, possession and merging procedures, as well as the private sector valuation services like banks or real estate financing companies in coordination with Ministry of Justice, and Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA). In this framework, The Ministry of Commerce and Industry expected that the real estate valuation licenses will be granted to about 80 facilities before the end of last year. The Secretary General clarifies that the Authority continues in making the necessary efforts in the implementation of the plans regarding the popularization of the qualifying training courses for getting the temporary membership, which allow practicing the real estate valuation after passing the training courses of the international standards of ethics and code of conduct for practicing the real estate valuation, and passing the personal interview. Al-Mubarak further said: "We are moving forward to activate the system of the accredited valuers in all of its sections. We are working for organizing a group of training courses, which is divided into two parts: the first one contains curriculum 101, 102 and 103 courses which is considered to be one of the qualifying conditions in order to get the temporary membership in real estate valuation field. The percentage of success in the test and in passing the curriculum exceeded 70% of the attendance. The courses were held in 9 cities, which are Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah, Taef, Ehsa, Dammam, Abha and Tabouk. The second part, the optional courses, are aimed at increasing the education and presenting the experiences and enhancing the concepts. The attendance hours of these courses will be calculated and considered as experienced for getting the membership. The Authority emphasized that there is an urgent need for the advancement of the valuation profession in the kingdom, which is considered one of the most important elements for keeping the savings and the public money assets. The law of the accredited valuers was issued, which defines the process of valuation as the process of determining the true value of real estates, economic business, equipment, and movable property for specific purpose. The authority added that the importance of the valuation profession lies in the need of the majority of sectors — like banks, insurance companies, real estate companies and the governmental authorities concerned in expropriation — to provide them the help in making the right important economic decisions, like the decisions of buying, selling, possession, merger, distribution of inheritance and companies, conflict settlements, compensation and the definition of the aims of investments and the implementation of it. The Authority considers the valuation profession as a promising profession that will contribute in creating many special job opportunities. Taqeem aims at raising the bar of the valuation profession to the level of like medicine and engineering, through putting the necessary standards for the real estate valuation and increasing the level of the employees morale, technically and professionally speaking, and qualifying the young cadres through specialized educational programs. — SG
