Ethical Case

Introduction

Cruickshank, Garth & Romano (CGR) is a new real estate appraisal and consulting firm formed by Chris Cruickshank, Wayne Garth, and Richard Romano. The firm provides not only residential, industrial and commercial evaluations, but also consulting services and feasibility analyses in the National Capital Region (NCR). Richard and his two partners have worked for one of the four major NCR firms and are well known in the local real estate community. And recently, Richard has just completed a preliminary evaluation of a property for Watson & Musico, which is one of NCR’s major developers and property owners. However, John Mortimer from Watson & Musico is unsatisfied with the Richard’s evaluation price, he asks Richard to raise the value, otherwise they have no business. This situation is difficult for Richard, because he wants to satisfy John’s needs, but at the same time, he can’t ignore the ethical issue to do that.

Stakeholders

 Richard Romano is a principal of CGR, and he is an Accredited Appraiser Canadian Institute (AACI) candidate. Richard has eight years of experience and is recognized as one of Canada’s leading real estate experts. He wants to complete the appraisal according to his best estimate of the current market value of the property, but he can’t afford losing business with Watson & Musico (WM) for not satisfying their needs. Success in project with WM will be a major boost to CGR, it is also Richard’s responsibility to keep his client’s interest in mind. Anyway, he wants to satisfy his client’s needs without breaking his image of profession.
 John Mortimer controls WM and he is well known in the NCR for his abrasive style and aggressive approach in business dealings. Because of the depressed real estate market and WM’s aggressive leasing policy, WM have a highly restricted cash flow. So WM plan to refinance all of its properties to reduce debt service requirements and to generate cash. While John feels Richard’s evaluation