Professional Practice, Ethics and the Role of the Authorized Person (Surveying)
This domain tests whether you can hold apart two things that blur easily on a live job: the Authorized Person's statutory functions under the Buildings Ordinance and the ordinary commercial or contractual roles a surveyor may carry on the same project. Questions are usually scenarios - a developer wants a shortcut, a contractor deviates, a client pushes for early certification - and marks go to candidates who reason from the Ordinance rather than from client expectation.
The statutory appointment
Building works cannot start until the Building Authority, the Director of Buildings, has approved the plans and given consent to commencement (s.14 of the Buildings Ordinance, Cap. 123). The AP prepares and submits those plans, supervises the works, notifies the Building Authority of prescribed events, and certifies completion so that an occupation permit under s.21 can issue. Authority comes from registration, not employment: the AP is a registered professional appointed in writing by the owner, and the duty is personal. If the AP leaves, a replacement must be appointed and notified; work should not continue on a lapsed appointment.
Independence and ethics
Most ethical questions reduce to independence and honesty. Advice must remain technically defensible even when it delays the programme. A fee or bonus linked to speed of approval is a conflict of interest and should be refused or disclosed. Deviations from approved plans must be reported, not quietly regularised by a revised submission after the event. Site records - diary, inspection sheets, dated photographs - are the evidence that will support a certificate years later. The Building Authority can inquire into the conduct of a registered professional and may remove a name from the register, so a careless certificate is a career risk, not merely a contractual one.
Worked example
A client instructs an AP to submit plans for a composite building on a lot whose Government lease is restricted to residential purposes, arguing that 'the Buildings Department never checks the lease'. The correct analysis: the lease restriction binds the owner independently of the Ordinance; approval of plans would not cure the breach; the Lands Department may take lease enforcement action regardless. The AP should advise a lease modification application (premium likely) and check whether the statutory zoning requires planning permission, before the programme is fixed. The advice should be recorded in writing.
Traps that cost marks
Treating the AP as the contractor's supervisor in the employment sense. Assuming Buildings Department approval validates lease or planning compliance. Certifying on the strength of a subordinate's report without inspection. Confusing 'approved plans' with 'consent to commence'. Answering an ethics question with a description of the approval process instead of identifying the conflict and the correct action.