some wording to help appraisers lessen violations since some violations are worse then others.
Well, sin is sin...once on your record, not many lawyers will give you a bye in court. They will accuse you of being ill-trained, or simply a poor appraiser. That's a major problem. There is no statute of limitations for your appraisal record.
There are a lot of appraisers who have been at this game 20 and 30 years. Hatch claims few appraisers are sanctioned. Well, I'd say they are getting better at avoiding sanctions certainly. But not many years ago the director stated in a newsletter they no longer update that some 49 or so complaints were lodged and 20 or so were adjudicated with the rest dismissed. At the time there were less than 900 appraisers. So 40 complaints out of 800 some appraisers means one complaint per appraiser per 20 years. Therefore, to escape having a complaint filed in a 20 or 30 year career is just luck. Are there repeat offenders? Sure. I know one girl who had 3 complaints filed, relatively mild issues apparently, because each time she was fined a bit and had to take a course or two, and report her work for six months, at which time, they pulled some of her assignments for review. She did what they asked each time. So that in the end, she retired without losing her license. And apparently the VA had no issue as she was a VA appraiser. But nevertheless, the cost of her E & O must have been high. And such complaints had to have taken a dent out of her income. And to what purpose did it serve?
ChatGPT does make mistakes because it searches info in the internet whether it's accurate or not.
Think in terms of this. Say, I ask AI to use the flood data from USGS stations that measure the height and flow of creeks in flood stage, then to predict the elevation of the largest flood on the record but adjust it according to changes in the watershed by estimating the time it takes water to concentrate in a particular spot, due to the additional concrete, roads, etc. and the reduction in pasture and trees in that watershed. (Called time of concentration - how quickly the water reaches the max height during a flood event. It's an engineering problem.) Say it predicts a height above the posted flood maps by one foot. You then build above that mark, not the flood map and think you are safe. So, you don't buy flood insurance. Bingo next year a record flood occurs, you are flooded out and you cannot sue the computer. You have no engineer to sue. You depended upon AI to do a task that a licensed civil engineer would be liable for...no recourse. AI will be doing risky things and humans won't be held liable for it. So, how soon to have AI appraisers... no license, no liability, no recourse, no ROVs, no reviews, nothing. You are stuck with the results.
That doesn't speak well of the way USPAP is used in the governing part of this equation.
One premise of the law that is fairly unique to the USA is the notion that one should give the benefit of the doubt to cases that are not clear. Prosecutors are loathe to file charges if the case is unlikely to be won. So, a trained jurist is making that judgement based upon their knowledge of the law. An investigator or board, OTOH, are not trained jurists. It adds an element of uncertainty to the case. The fact that there is no consequences to the board or investigator should the real courts overturn a decision, speaks volumes about the inadequacy of the process. Again, in most states, I bet some appraiser somewhere appealed a board decision and won. In my opinion, in those cases the appraiser is still not made whole. They are out tens of thousands of dollars in many cases, especially if their E & O wants to quickly settle cheap and the appraiser is forced to fend for themselves. Geoge calls these incidental cases, the unfortunate happenstance that is no fault of the board nor the appraiser but paid for entirely by the appraiser. Just bad luck. No. It is incompetence upon part of the boards who apply a heavy hand. And, like AI above, no consequences for failure of the board. A bad board can hurt a lot of people over time. The fact only a few per year get the hammer does not make it 'acceptable'. There ought to be consequences for failure - be it the appraiser or be it the board.
So I would propose that when an appraiser wins a case, that the BOARD AS INDIVIDUALS be required to pony up the legal fees of the appraiser. And they can do that with Board E & O or performance bond- I was under that as a member of 2 boards (the state and national board of a group) ...so that the licensed appraisers themselves are not paying out for board incompetence.
community for the discussion of real estate appraisal. Register a free account to be able to post and unlock additional forums and features.
