Girls in a man's world. Women make great surveyors too

by Mary-Anne Bowring

Whilst perhaps traditionally Surveying has been a man's world, Mary-Anne Bowring, MD of The Ringley Group proves, by being declared Surveyor of the Year at the Property Awards for Women, that women make great surveyors too.

It's not that often in doing your day job, a Client story is as great as this one. Chartered Surveyor, Mary-Anne Bowring, just 4 days before a Valuation Tribunal hearing to determine the freehold purchase price got involved. The leaseholders group had all but collapsed and been advised by their then Solicitors and Valuers to withdraw. Being outraged, Mary-anne picked up the gauntlet.
The client was £17,000 down in fees and their solicitor and surveyor had advised them to give up. The freeholders Section 21 Notice was £925,000. By destroying the Freeholders case and producing realistic valuations for the telecommunications installations she settled the case at £356,000, saving a whopping £569,000 for the Client.

Victoria Cooke (The Innovative Property Show, organisers of the awards) said: this winner is driven, passionate, bursting with ideas and works with the speed of lightening. I was very impressed with her forward thinking attitude, when she took on the case of a SE22 block of flats when all other surveyors had given up. This lady fought and won against a vastly exaggerated valuation set by the freeholder, eventually saving her client over £500,000. Brilliant work! It's a testament to the way she inspires and leads the rest of the staff, says David Field (also a Ringley Board member).

Mary-Anne was also a Finalist for Individual Valuer Of The Year at the Enfranchisement And Right To Manage Awards earlier this year.

Mary-Anne commented on receiving the award that "the property business and surveying is still very much a man's world. I've always found that a fun challenge rather than an obstacle. Women can make excellent business leaders, often they have more energy, drive and our inate ability to multi-task arguably gives us an physiological advantage when it comes to rapid growth and driving multiple projects forward ".