Don Fiore
Junior Member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2005
- Professional Status
- Certified Residential Appraiser
- State
- Illinois
I just completed a field review for a client who typically blacks out the original appraiser's name and signature from the report under review. This time, the client overlooked a portion of the report in which the appraiser's name was clearly visible. The appraisal report was loaded with misleading information and obviously a value push.
Out of curiosity, since I now had (his/her) name, I looked up the appraiser and his license number on the State site. Turns out that although (he/she) indicates that (he/she) is certified, (he/she) was actually an associate level appraiser when this report was completed, and (he/she) included a totally fictitious license number in the report.
I advised my client of this by phone, and was essentially told that finding out this information was beyond the scope of work of my review, and that I should not mention this anywhere in my report. That's fine with me. But I would really like to turn this report over to the State because of the obvious fraud. Given the client's touchy attitude about this and everything, and given the fact that I was not supposed to know the name of the original appraiser in the first place, would I be violating client confidentiality if I did so?
Out of curiosity, since I now had (his/her) name, I looked up the appraiser and his license number on the State site. Turns out that although (he/she) indicates that (he/she) is certified, (he/she) was actually an associate level appraiser when this report was completed, and (he/she) included a totally fictitious license number in the report.
I advised my client of this by phone, and was essentially told that finding out this information was beyond the scope of work of my review, and that I should not mention this anywhere in my report. That's fine with me. But I would really like to turn this report over to the State because of the obvious fraud. Given the client's touchy attitude about this and everything, and given the fact that I was not supposed to know the name of the original appraiser in the first place, would I be violating client confidentiality if I did so?
