Validate select fields based off drop down selection

Validate select fields based off drop down selection

I'm trying to validate select fields depending on the drop down selection. I have also tried
  1.     if ($('#PropertyOwnership').val() != "Property Owner") {

nothing is working. How do I fire select validation based off of what the user selects from the dropdown?

The jQuery: 
   
    
    
  1.     if ($('#PropertyOwnership').attr("value") != "Property Owner") {
    2. 
    
  2.         aReturn = ValidateItem('RentalContactsName', true, "Please enter the contact's name.", null, true);
    3. 
    
  3.         if (!aReturn) return aReturn;
    4. 
    
  4. }
    5.

The HTML: 
   
    
    
  1.             <div><select id="RentalPropertyOwnership" name="RentalPropertyOwnership">
    2. 
    
  2.                         <option value="">&nbsp;&nbsp;-&nbsp;Please Select&nbsp;-&nbsp;&nbsp;</option>
    3. 
    
  3.                         <option value="Property Owner">Property Owner</option>
    4. 
    
  4.                         <option value="Corporation">Corporation</option>
    5. 
    
  5.                         <option value="Limited Liability Company">Limited Liability Company</option>
    6. 
    
  6.                         <option value="Limited Partnership">Limited Partnership</option>
    7. 
    
  7.                         <option value="Partnership">Partnership</option>
    8. 
    
  8.                         <option value="Real Estate Investment Trust">Real Estate Investment Trust</option>
    9. 
    
  9.                         <option value="Trust">Trust</option>
    10. 
    
  10.                     </select></div>
    11.