The confidentiality rule is confounding to say the least. Lender A hires the Appraiser. Lender B buys the loan. It is discovered that the appraisal may have been incompetently performed . The appraiser hides behind USPAP? That is ethical? What a goofy document that allows fraud and or incompetence to flourish. It makes the whole intended use / intended user debate make my head explode.
"Incompetently performed" is related to Lender A's criteria, not those of Lender B. That's what "intended user/intended use" are for. Confidentiality is to prevent the appraiser from enabling Lender B to steal the loan from behind Lender As back without their permission. Or to prevent Litigant B from discovering what the appraiser prepared for Litigant A without their express consent. Confidentiality is intended to protect the legitimate interests of the Appraiser's client, in support of the appraiser-client relationship which provides the foundation of the public trust in the appraisal profession. How can my client trust me if I an allowed (or at least, not prohibited from ) conspiring with their competition behind their back?
As for the issue of intended users, how do I go about meeting the expectations of any user of whom I am not aware, have no relationship with, and whose expectations were never communicated to me and are therefore unknowable by me?
And why is Lender B buying loans from Lender A without anyone instructing the appraiser that Lender A wants them to cooperate with Lender B in the event there's a question? If Lender B bought that loan without doing their own due diligence on it then whose fault is that?
Blaming the appraiser for decisions Lender A/Lender B made is not a plan. Those lenders did the expedient thing - which is fine - but that doesn't make the potential downsides of that decision the appraiser's problem. No appraiser should be compelled to *guess* when their ethical obligations to their original client end. And no lender should be *making* loans on appraisals they haven't vetted or *buying* loans based on appraisals they haven't vetted - that's how we keep running into these financing bubbles.
Long story short - I see this as an issue to be resolved in advance by contract with the appraiser, not an issue our appraisal standards should be dorked to accommodate.
And BTW, the fundamentals of the CONFIDENTIALITY RULE weren't even created by the original framers or USPAP or altered since then - they predate USPAP itself in our profession by at least 90 years that i know of and probably prior to that.