A must read article.

[aprazer]

This is an excellent article on the pitiful oversight we have in New York. There are several quotes from forum member Joe Birrell.

The most amazing thing in the article is that the NY Board has not Suspended OR revoked ANY licences in the past 3 years. Keep in mind the market area discussed in the article(Nassau and Suffolk counties) are only two counties in NY, and they alone have a population of about 3 million.


http://www.newsday.com/business/realestate/


If this link does not work, go to newsday.com, on the left side scroll down to business, then click real estate-go to the article "Critics say tighter controls needed".

Well done Mr Birrell.

 

[George Hatch]

Great article.

The debates we have on this forum relating to state appraisal board activity usually focuses on boards that are perceived as failing by being 'hyper-sensitive' to minor appraiser infractions or mere differences in value opinions. But this article points to the other extreme; state boards that are basically failing their duties by virtue of negligence. And yes, I would say that a state board that allows appraisers to keep their licenses even though they have demonstrated unethical behavior sufficient to warrant criminal prosecution is being negligent in their duties. What, a mere misdemeanor is not enough, the appraiser must be convicted of a felony and go to prison before they lose their license?

New York revokes no licenses in the last 3 years? California has slighly more than double the number of appraisers. The Calif. OREA revokes or refuses to renew at least 12 appraisers a year, and the pace is increasing. And the OREA is by no means hyper-sensitive. When it comes to appraisal issues, they only go after demonstrable USPAP violations. Just looking at the numbers, it should be obvious that something isn't working right in NY.

I think that the majority of state boards are doing the best that they can with the resources at hand, but there are clearly some state boards that are operating in the fringes. Thus, we have boards that are too active and boards that are not active enough. Both of these extremes are intolerable and are also demonstrative of what we could expect if the state boards are cut loose from all federal supervision, as some states are currently proposing. If anything, the current system of state licensure with federal supervision should be upgraded, not dismantelled. The state boards should all work to a common standard of enforcement. If that means that they need a larger budget to work with, then so be it.


George Hatch

 

[Joe Birrell (NY)]

After talking to the reporter (and reading the article), I found out that the situation here was worst than I thought. The appraiser involved in the HUD/FHA scam still has his license after pleading guilty to making "felony false statements" (I guess that's legal double-speak for fraudulent appraisal) ! He was removed from the FHA list, but apparently NY thinks it isn't a problem - unbelievable !

 

[Leon Stewart]

Wayne told me I had to use my full name to be a member of this Forum. I don't think the originator of this thread is using his/her full name. Wayne should apply the same rules to everybody.

Reference to the Newsday Article itself.

It seem as if it was written by the Institute since it only mentioned them as though they were the only Appraisal Organization in N.Y. State. I'm supprised that some of the other Organization's Members have not commented on that part of the Article.

One part of the Article that was glossed over was the statement by a Board employee indicating that most of the complaints were received from homeowners complaining about their low values. If that statement is checked out in detail throughout the country it will probably show that this is true mostly everywhere. So the answer to the Boards lack of manpower to process complaints is to revise the complaint process to eliminate the frivilous complaints. Everyone knows that the average homeowner thinks their property is worth twice as much as it does, because the house down the street which is twice the size and half the age sold for such and such.

Leon