2024 USPAP - "Personal Inspection" definition revised

[Tom D]

Say what you do, do what you say.

I did not personally inspect this property for this assignment. I did previously inspect the interior/exterior of the property on 03/12/2023 while performing a previous appraisal assignment. This appraisal is based in part on the assumption that the property attributes and conditions have not significantly changed in the interim. If this assumption is incorrect it would have an effect on my opinions and conclusions. ​

​

They are not requiring the appraiser to disavow or otherwise not disclose their prior inspection of the property.

would just an exterior inspection of the property allow you to state you personally previously inspected the property and are using that info now. to me, without seeing the property, you never know if there wasn't a fire. it only takes 1 mistake to kill you. but i understand the long drive time for some, what are the odds that something did happen to the dwelling.

 

[Dale Floyd]

would just an exterior inspection of the property allow you to state you personally previously inspected the property and are using that info now. to me, without seeing the property, you never know if there wasn't a fire. it only takes 1 mistake to kill you. but i understand the long drive time for some, what are the odds that something did happen to the dwelling.

Whether or not something happens to the house after the initial inspection, and before your signature date, is why there is an effective date shown. Let's say you inspected the property on January 2nd at 10:00 am. The house catches fire and burns on January 3rd at 3:00 am. You turn in the report on January 4th at 9:00 am. Would you reinspect prior to transmitting? No, because your inspection was prior to the fire. You might not even be aware it happened.

A subsequent request wanting an appraisal as of your original effective date, is a risk by the client for obvious reasons and the appraiser should always point that out.

 

[George Hatch]

would just an exterior inspection of the property allow you to state you personally previously inspected the property and are using that info now. to me, without seeing the property, you never know if there wasn't a fire. it only takes 1 mistake to kill you. but i understand the long drive time for some, what are the odds that something did happen to the dwelling.

I think there's a distinction between what I know of the property as a result of seeing it in the past vs what I actually did/didn't do during the course of this assignment.

It seems to me that the only reason this can even be a problem for appraisers is to the extent they are using the pre-printed forms with the hard-wired verbiage about did/didn't inspect. I have 100% control over the verbiage in my narrative and form formats so I can always say what I mean about the situation regardless of the specifics. But only because I have that level of control and flexibility.

If the various forms designers haven't already adjusted their forms to this tweak it would be appropriate to do so now as a means of enabling appraisers the flexibility it takes to use these forms in different situations.

 

[andrew81]

It's all about the stated scope of work, and the certification. with preprinted forms the effective date is the inspection date.

2024 USPAP Advisory Opinion 2

A Personal Inspection as Part of the Scope of Work
Appraisers are often asked to appraise a property which they have previously inspected. If an appraiser has driven
past a property many times prior to that property becoming the subject of an assignment, the appraiser has not yet
inspected the property as a part of his or her scope of work for the assignment.
The definition of PERSONAL INSPECTION is distinguished as an inspection the appraiser performs “as part of the scope
of work” for an appraisal or an appraisal review assignment. In these situations, *(preprinted forms)* prior inspections occurred before the
agreement to perform an assignment and thus are not part of the appraiser’s scope of work. It is not unusual for an
appraiser to have, for example, seen a property in-person before they agree to perform an appraisal assignment.

Disclosure Requirements Regarding the Appraiser’s Personal Inspection
While an inspection is not required, written appraisal reports for real and personal property must contain a signed
certification (oral reports must have the signed certification in the workfile) that clearly states whether the appraiser
has or has not personally inspected the subject property.
When a personal inspection is performed as part of the scope of work used to develop the appraisal, there are
additional reporting requirements.
First, the report must contain sufficient information to enable the intended users to understand the scope of work
performed. Per the SCOPE OF WORK RULE this includes, “the extent to which tangible property is inspected.”
This disclosure informs the intended user how much (or what parts) of the property were personally inspected
(or, if necessary, details about which parts of the property that were not inspected), so that the communication is
meaningful and not misleading.
And, regardless of the minimum USPAP reporting requirements related to inspections performed as part of the
scope of work, situations may arise where the intended user would need to know, provided there are no applicable
confidentiality restrictions from a prior assignment, that the appraiser has inspected the property sometime prior to
agreeing to perform an assignment. Such a disclosure of an inspection that occurred prior to agreeing to perform
an assignment may be especially necessary if that knowledge was uniquely relevant to being able to solve the
appraisal problem for the current assignment.
Second, the report must contain a certification indicating whether any signing appraiser has or has not personally
inspected the property that is the subject of the appraisal report. For an appraisal review assignment, the certification
would disclose if any signing appraiser personally inspected the property that is the subject of the work under review.
A personal inspection that satisfies the appraiser’s certification must be conducted as part of the scope of work for
the appraisal or appraisal review assignment. An inspection by the appraiser that occurred outside of the assignment
may be information used by the appraiser, but those inspections are a type of research that was not informed by
the scope of work needed to solve the appraisal problem. Therefore, certifying a personal inspection was made as
part of the assignment when the inspection occurred outside of the assignment would be misleading. If information
from a prior inspection about a subject property is used to develop an appraisal, then appropriate disclosure of that
inspection would be necessary as part of the scope of work reporting requirements.
Regarding third-party inspection reports, no disclosure about those reports is required in the certification or in the
appraisal report; however, there may be instances where disclosures about those types of reports is necessary for
the intended user to properly understand the appraisal report.

 

[Tiffany Gibbons]

Must have missed that in the last USPAP class... the instructor wanted to be a Vaudeville singer and comedian on our Zoom class.

It was almost unbearable....

Hey, it's gotta be difficult to stretch a 1 hour class at best into 7 hours, IMO, but I am not taking 2024 USPAP until later this month.

 

[Fernando]

It's all about the stated scope of work, and the certification. with preprinted forms the effective date is the inspection date.

2024 USPAP Advisory Opinion 2

A Personal Inspection as Part of the Scope of Work
Appraisers are often asked to appraise a property which they have previously inspected. If an appraiser has driven
past a property many times prior to that property becoming the subject of an assignment, the appraiser has not yet
inspected the property as a part of his or her scope of work for the assignment.
The definition of PERSONAL INSPECTION is distinguished as an inspection the appraiser performs “as part of the scope
of work” for an appraisal or an appraisal review assignment. In these situations, *(preprinted forms)* prior inspections occurred before the
agreement to perform an assignment and thus are not part of the appraiser’s scope of work. It is not unusual for an
appraiser to have, for example, seen a property in-person before they agree to perform an appraisal assignment.

Disclosure Requirements Regarding the Appraiser’s Personal Inspection
While an inspection is not required, written appraisal reports for real and personal property must contain a signed
certification (oral reports must have the signed certification in the workfile) that clearly states whether the appraiser
has or has not personally inspected the subject property.
When a personal inspection is performed as part of the scope of work used to develop the appraisal, there are
additional reporting requirements.
First, the report must contain sufficient information to enable the intended users to understand the scope of work
performed. Per the SCOPE OF WORK RULE this includes, “the extent to which tangible property is inspected.”
This disclosure informs the intended user how much (or what parts) of the property were personally inspected
(or, if necessary, details about which parts of the property that were not inspected), so that the communication is
meaningful and not misleading.
And, regardless of the minimum USPAP reporting requirements related to inspections performed as part of the
scope of work, situations may arise where the intended user would need to know, provided there are no applicable
confidentiality restrictions from a prior assignment, that the appraiser has inspected the property sometime prior to
agreeing to perform an assignment. Such a disclosure of an inspection that occurred prior to agreeing to perform
an assignment may be especially necessary if that knowledge was uniquely relevant to being able to solve the
appraisal problem for the current assignment.
Second, the report must contain a certification indicating whether any signing appraiser has or has not personally
inspected the property that is the subject of the appraisal report. For an appraisal review assignment, the certification
would disclose if any signing appraiser personally inspected the property that is the subject of the work under review.
A personal inspection that satisfies the appraiser’s certification must be conducted as part of the scope of work for
the appraisal or appraisal review assignment. An inspection by the appraiser that occurred outside of the assignment
may be information used by the appraiser, but those inspections are a type of research that was not informed by
the scope of work needed to solve the appraisal problem. Therefore, certifying a personal inspection was made as
part of the assignment when the inspection occurred outside of the assignment would be misleading. If information
from a prior inspection about a subject property is used to develop an appraisal, then appropriate disclosure of that
inspection would be necessary as part of the scope of work reporting requirements.
Regarding third-party inspection reports, no disclosure about those reports is required in the certification or in the
appraisal report; however, there may be instances where disclosures about those types of reports is necessary for
the intended user to properly understand the appraisal report.

2024 USPAP Advisory Opinion 2 is so confusing.
Major failure.
Personal Inspection has always been the date that I inspected.
Otherwise, explain the date last inspected.

 

[George Hatch]

Hey, it's gotta be difficult to stretch a 1 hour class at best into 7 hours, IMO, but I am not taking 2024 USPAP until later this month.

When I taught the live instruction courses I had to move pretty quickly to cover the material I wanted to cover in the manner I wanted to cover them. I never "finished early" with the courses I taught. There were a couple topics the school offered that were a little too thin to justify a 3hr course approval, but for the most part I could always add to the syllabus in order to help participants connect more of the dots.

If a course participant was going to take a day off work AND pay for a course then I considered it crucial to give them their money's worth.

The guys sitting on the back row? Those "involuntary detainees" were my target audience. I was always pitching to them.

 

[Carnivore]

When I read up on this it made me think and ask a question.

1. DClient sends you an appraisal request s week later or sometime even two weeks afterward you had inspected and completed an assignment for a different client. The SOW can and may be different. For grins let's say the physical Inspection requirements are the same. Sounds Great doesn't it. You don't have to go back out. I think at this point GH as usual made a good points.

Here is my question: How can your physical in person Inspection precede the Assignment acceptance date of the new client? It can't. period! So the answer to me was obvious. You already have to reveal the prior service in your new report, but Don't you think the new client needs to know that during the assignment process and before acceptance?

Where am I wrong headed on this? I have completed reports in the past where they were Subject To a repair or completion. Many times I have never been ask to go back out for that "subject To" Turns out under fast n Cheap they got some other Dude to do the final or clear the repair. See where this is getting goofy!

Another problemI see with this strange thinking is later the active/pending comparable you used may have a status change after your first actual in person inspection. Now what are you going to do. Another issue I see is what if something happened to the subject after your first on-site subject inspection.

"Something smells in Denmark." (idiomatic) Something is not right, seriously amiss, especially when leading to suspicion of motive. quotations ▼ If the authorities knew about the problems and chose not to prevent them, then clearly something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

AfterThought I get the reasoning. I just wonder how often is this going to come up? Probably not enough to make any difference. If there attempting to save time and consumers money. That's laughable. Have you looked at a settlement statement lately. we are one of the lowest cost in that statement.
No one has answered. prolly because they don't want to admit they are completing them for chump change.

 

[djd09]

just call it a desktop appraisal...and no inspection is required...either way inspecting revolves back to misleading....intentionally or not

 

[Tiffany Gibbons]

When I taught the live instruction courses I had to move pretty quickly to cover the material I wanted to cover in the manner I wanted to cover them. I never "finished early" with the courses I taught. There were a couple topics the school offered that were a little too thin to justify a 3hr course approval, but for the most part I could always add to the syllabus in order to help participants connect more of the dots.

If a course participant was going to take a day off work AND pay for a course then I considered it crucial to give them their money's worth.

The guys sitting on the back row? Those "involuntary detainees" were my target audience. I was always pitching to them.

My mentor is teaching my upcoming class. He is a great teacher, so in this case I'm actually looking forward to it and will get my money's worth. He doesn't teach to "GUYS n the back row". We don't really have "the involuntary detainees" in our ASA Middle Tennessee Chapter. We are all there to learn. I miss being in the office with him, he was a walking USPAP manual and if he didn't know the answer to any appraisal question, he knew the person that would know. I don't seem to have the difficulty that some on the forum do as far as figuring out things for myself largely because of the way I was trained. He would play Devil's Advocate with us on court cases, expert witness, etc. We are having a litigation appraisal class too, which all our members are excited about.