I recently heard Rory Sutherland talk about something called Dishwasher Darwinism.
The idea is simple: assume everything is dishwasher-safe — and three months later, whatever survives… is.
It isn’t best practice. It isn’t policy.
It’s just pressure quietly deciding what lasts.
And the more I thought about it, the more it felt like a good way of describing what’s happening in the property industry — especially as we move towards 2026.
Not through one dramatic shift.
But through steady pressure, and the quiet reshaping that follows.
Independence isn’t a slogan — it’s the point
One thing I can say with real confidence about the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks (AIIC) is this: independence isn’t branding. It’s the foundation.
A professional inventory clerk shouldn’t be:
- swayed by a landlord
- pressured by an agent
- or influenced by a commercial structure that benefits from a particular outcome
Yet across the sector, we can all see the direction of travel. Larger organisations are building in-house service arms. Reporting, compliance and inspections increasingly sit inside the same commercial ecosystems.
On paper, that looks efficient.
In reality, efficiency has a habit of quietly eating things that don’t look productive on a spreadsheet.
And independence is often the first to go — not through bad intent, but because neutrality is inconvenient. It slows decisions. It creates friction. And friction rarely survives optimisation.
The real risk: quiet bias
The future risk isn’t sudden corruption. It’s something subtler.
A world where:
- reporting slowly bends towards convenience
- neutrality gives way to commercial alignment
- and “independent” becomes a label rather than a lived reality
Not because people act badly — but because good people operate inside incentives they didn’t design.
That’s how bias usually enters a system. Quietly. Structurally. Normalised.
When markets start talking to themselves
As ownership in property concentrates, influence widens.
Bigger landlords become bigger agencies.
Bigger agencies become bigger service groups.
Before long, the same commercial ecosystems can own:
- the interest
- the management
- the compliance
- and sometimes even the reporting about that interest
It isn’t sinister. It’s scale meeting pressure.
But once the same force owns both the outcome and the process meant to assess it, neutrality doesn’t disappear — it just becomes harder to defend.
And that’s the moment when professional bodies stop being ceremonial and start being essential.
Why standards matter more than ever
There is no statutory requirement that inventory clerks must be independent.
Independence is a professional principle, not yet a legal one.
That means the responsibility sits with us.
Waiting for regulation to define the profession would be a mistake. The stronger move is for the profession to define itself first — through:
- clear standards
- transparency around conflicts
- and the confidence to say:
This is what professional looks like in our world.
If we don’t, someone else will. And it may not be in the interests of fair reporting or independent clerks.
Why AIIC matters in 2026
If inventory clerks don’t band together professionally — not just socially — the role risks drifting into one of two futures:
- absorbed into corporate structures, or
- reduced to a low-margin, interchangeable task
Neither protects:
- fairness
- independence
- or long-term credibility
At its best, AIIC isn’t just training or networking.
It’s the spine of the profession — the place where we decide:
- what independence really means
- what standards actually look like
- and what we’re prepared to stand for, even when it’s inconvenient
Dishwasher Darwinism, one last time
Dishwasher Darwinism says: put things under pressure and see what survives.
Over the next few years, the property sector will experience more pressure — commercially, structurally and culturally.
What survives will be:
- the parts with standards
- the parts with cohesion
- the parts confident enough to define themselves
What warps will be:
- anything built on vagueness
- convenience
- or borrowed credibility
A final thought
This isn’t about fear.
It’s about responsibility.
Because what’s exceptional about this profession isn’t its size — it’s its people. The entrepreneurs, the problem-solvers, the professionals who care about doing the job properly even when no one is watching.
That’s not something to take lightly.
That’s something to protect.
And if 2026 is going to be a turning point, let it be one we shape — not one that simply happens to us.
