October 2010 Beijing Municipal Construction Committee introduced a new model of "third-party assessment of the Commissioner of the property", the third-party sector will undertake the evaluation of the property service fee, Property service quality evaluation and property projects will take over the three inspection work. It can be said that this work covers most dissatisfaction part to the owners.

    First, the price of the property service charges and property owners has always been a conflict. On the one hand, many owners feel that the cost is too high, what do they provide to ask for so much; on the other hand, the property company thinks that energy costs , labor costs are up, while only property costs can not rise, in some cases it is decreasing, if so,the property company will not be able to maintain normal operation, it is bound to lower the service standards, which Leads to the second question, the property service quality, the problem will never be agreed by owners and property companies, the owner may resort to fire the property company; the third is dispute between the owner and developer, quality problems or part of the project is not completed, which is a common problem, and it becomes even more prominent to the property companies of the developing companies, many quality problems were shelved, owners will endure the daily issues one way or another, causing property owners refuse to pay service fees, which is a vicious cycle.

    The emergence of third-party assessment of the property sector opened the door to the owners. First of all, the price of the property is no longer decided by the developer at the selling stage, and a third-party assessment agency should evaluate the service in accordance with the service standards made by the Construction Committee of experts, service price is high if standards are high, and owners will enjoy the consistent quality and price of property services. If the property owners is dissatisfied with the quality of services, a third-party rating agencies also may be invited to give an assessment of service and make an conclusion whether it is a standard one.  Based on the report, the Commission can decide to lower the property owners fees or make replacement of property companies, the owner is no longer alone, but rather backed by the owners of the property industry.

    Third-party rating agencies have started more than half a year, and has conducted more than one hundred items of inspection work in property assessment and property services, through this work, on the one hand  it limits the developer form charging too highe property service fee, on the other hand, also curb the vicious competition among property companies, and provide qualitative value to the owner and the conflicts between owners and enterprises.
    Third-party assessment of the property sector in the country is still a new thing, still in its infancy, long way to go, I think that the following points are crucial in the third-party assessment development: 1.third-party assessment is a professional industry and requires employees to have a rich knowledge and years of property management experience, key personnel should be the property industry experts; 2. It has to be genuine talent pool of experts who have a strong sense of responsibility to the owners and assessment agency; 3. All parties are new to this and a cognitive process is needed for transition from policy support to market competition and therefore, the rating agencies should not be too much in the beginning.After the market is mature, market competition can take over; 4. Guide the owners to have a clear knowledge between services prices and qualities of the services, through a third party monitoring, owners can get a price-worthy service.

Writer: Deng Xuejun (Property Manager, Electrical Engineer)