Following the Arbitrator’s appointment, he/she will normally suggest a preliminary meeting, either in person or by telephone conference, for the parties to agree the procedure leading up to a hearing or written submissions. This hearing might include dealing with such matters as who is to be the claimant and the respondent, when a Schedule of Agreed Facts is to be drawn up, when and how Budgets are to be exchanged between the parties, when and how Statements of Case are to be exchanged, whether Comparables are going to be used, when and where the hearing might take place, the procedure to apply in respect to disclosure of documentary evidence, whether there are any particular legal issues in dispute, arrangements for inspecting, and ultimately representations in respect to costs after an interim award in respect to the rent. The Arbitrator will want to find out the background to the review and will want to encourage identifying the issues between the parties and the parties agreeing as many of these as possible. Reminders will be given about privileged correspondence and communication which should not be divulged to the Arbitrator to maintain an open channel of communication to encourage settlement.
Unlike a court hearing, the idea of an Arbitration is that the “judge” is a practising land agent/surveyor who will be doing rent reviews him/herself, and practically understands the subject matter. Historically therefore many arbitrations have been conducted in an inexpensive, simple and relatively straight forward manner involving the Arbitrator and just two surveyors. However an arbitration is a tribunal with similar procedures to a court, and with the more and more litigious environment we live in, care at the outset should be taken as to the roles your surveyor will need to be able to handle simultaneously without incurring the cost of other professionals.
A surveyor could be a “Witness of Fact”, giving evidence under oath; he/she will also need to be a Case Manager, a Negotiator and Advisor, and certainly an Expert Witness in respect to valuation and maybe also Budgets. The final role is also of course the actual advocacy. As with any dispute, if it sadly ends up needing to be resolved by a third party, quite often there are other issues than the rent which have caused such a dispute.