Does a Buyer Have Standing to Sue an Appraiser in Florida for Negligence?

[Deleted member 152047]

Are you suggesting that the buyer sue in small claims to avoid legal fees?

My point is that no matter what, when you hire an attorney it will get expensive quick.

I think that this thread contains the guidance that you need from us lowly real estate professionals. Legal advice should be sought, but IMHO the best (and cheapest) advice is to sell this thing and move on.

 

[TD Morgan]

My point is that no matter what, when you hire an attorney it will get expensive quick.

I think that this thread contains the guidance that you need from us lowly real estate professionals. Legal advice should be sought, but IMHO the best (and cheapest) advice is to sell this thing and move on.

I am not one to support legal battles. I will tell him this advice seems to be the consensus.

 

[TD Morgan]

Should he file a complaint because of the error, inform the appraiser of the mistake, or disregard?

 

[jay trotta]

I'm not an appraiser and I'm not an attorney. I'm a Realtor. I am stunned that the lender financed this deal with a VA loan. It is extremely obvious when applying for a VA loan that the occupancy requirement has to be fulfilled and that the proposed property is the primary residence of the borrower. There is no way that the borrower wouldn't understand that concept unless he was fraudulently trying to work around the mandatory VA occupancy rules.
It is equally obvious when looking at a condo-tel that those residences can't be used as a primary residence by the owner (check rules). Limiting the number of days an owner can stay in the unit is very prominent within the condo-tel docs and extremely common limitation among condo-tels. It is a major factor when selling those type of units. If the unit was new, then like condo's he has 15 days to check out the rules. If a resale, then 3 days, but there is NO EXCUSE for the buyer/borrower to say "he didn't know" that he couldn't occupy the condo-tel full time as a primary home. To me, it appears he was trying to get a lower rate mortgage with no MI and 100% LTV rather than pay the market rate for a condo-tel mortgage.
Based on the facts as they have been presented so far, I think the buyer/borrower was trying to get one over the lender and got caught. He needs to sell it - take his lumps and hope he doesn't get brought up on fraud charges. Yes, it's fraud to misrepresent any portion of your borrowing status (including the property to be financed) in order to obtain a mortgage loan. The borrower needs an attorney in Florida to help him navigate this. My personal opinion.

TD Morgan, did you read this or miss it ??

 

[TD Morgan]

TD Morgan, did you read this or miss it ??

I read that. Not sure it is wholly accurate. Many people have lived in the condohotel as their permanent residence. I am not sure anyone knew such use was not allowed, as the association management even rents out units as apartments. About one third of the units are not in the hotel pool and are used in different ways, including residences. Denita may have an understanding of condo hotels, but in the subject, there are no use limits that conform to what is referenced. I don't think the buyer did anything nefarious.

 

[glenn walker]

Did the buyer really purchase as a rental under the pretense of it being owner occupied and got caught by VA that he/she was not living there ? It happens sometimes and now he/she needs a way to blame the appraiser ? Just saying , sometimes after close of escrow the lender does an-occupancy check, we had one like a few years last year , after close of escrow, new owner rented it out, never lived in it but signed the Owner Occupied agreement with lender. the buyer purchased a unit with 100% No Down VA Loan --he got caught- lender had to buy back the loan and then went after buyer for loan fraud.

 

[alebrewer]

Yeah I don't buy it. Its not the appraiser's job to determine this. The appraiser reported the zoning. Done. Who says the appraiser did not properly research the zoning? Why should the appraiser specify anything about permanent residency?

Agreed that it's a grey area, but isn't part of a H&BU analysis to determine what uses are legal and what uses aren't? And wouldn't the ability to use it as a permanent residence be one of those uses to be considered? Unless, of course, it wasn't a zoning issue, but rather a CC&R issue? In which case, I can attest to the fact that appraisers can be held liable for not understanding CC&R's - personal friend was successfully sued for appraising a model home (sans garage) in a neighborhood where the CC&R's required cars to be in the garage at night (i.e. no cars outside at night). Appraiser ended up having to pay for the garage to be re-converted...

 

[TD Morgan]

Did the buyer really purchase as a rental under the pretense of it being owner occupied and got caught by VA that he/she was not living there ? It happens sometimes and now he/she needs a way to blame the appraiser ? Just saying , sometimes after close of escrow the lender does an-occupancy check, we had one like a few years last year , after close of escrow, new owner rented it out, never lived in it but signed the Owner Occupied agreement with lender. the buyer purchased a unit with 100% No Down VA Loan --he got caught- lender had to buy back the loan and then went after buyer for loan fraud.

He has actually lived in his property since he bought it three years ago. He applied for a Homestead Exemption and was denied on the grounds that making the property a permanent residence was not allowed. It was the first indication there was a problem. He still lives in it but now knows he is in violation of zoning.

 

[glenn walker]

He has actually lived in his property since he bought it three years ago. He applied for a Homestead Exemption and was denied on the grounds that making the property a permanent residence was not allowed. It was the first indication there was a problem. He still lives in it but now knows he is in violation of zoning.

So now he has lived there for three years ? The reason he was refused a homestead exemption was because Condo-Hotels are considered to be used for both owners and some are rented out and this owner has the opportunity to have the HOA rent his unit anytime he decides he wants to do so living in it full time is not a violation but since he can rent it anytime he is not getting a HO Exemption. Also if people could get a Homestead on these types of properties they woudl all be claiming to be occupying them 365 days a year and many don't. Also he should be intelligent enough to understand why, and typically a HO exemption does not save you a tone of money anyway, his biggest problem will be selling the property in the future because Condo-Hotles are DOA and most lenders wont even lend on them and so he is a bad buyer and needs to focus on unloading that bad-boy and someone needs to help him/her-it buy a real property

 

[J Grant]

He has actually lived in his property since he bought it three years ago. He applied for a Homestead Exemption and was denied on the grounds that making the property a permanent residence was not allowed. It was the first indication there was a problem. He still lives in it but now knows he is in violation of zoning.

What a crybaby, I bet he fudged on his VA loan app or even if somebody along the line screwed up - just live in and enjoy the place or rent it out and if wants to sell it then do so, and hope the VA does not scrutinize loan - if I were that person I would not want to draw attention to myself, he is occupying unit full time which sounds like a gray area and the management will overlook it till he makes a fuss and files a lawsuit - the building will have a lawsuit on record and then he will really have trouble selling it . Not that he cares but condo boards are sick of these lawsuits from owners who file over nonsense which drives up maintenance and ruins it for everyone else in the bldg