Does A Trainee Need To Sign A Report In Order To Get Experience Hours Credit?

[Red Flint]

I would write a short statement for each workfile as to why your signature is not on the report, and have your supervisory appraiser sign this along with your signature.

You could use these if the reviewer questions why your signature is not on the report. They may not be aware of why each report situation is different than normal.

It sounds though that you covered yourself with writing your contributions in the report. Unfortunately, you have few options because the licensing board controls the approval game, so chalk if up to bad luck if you hit a bump, and press forward. Good luck.

 

[Joe Flacco]

Just send them the reports. They will let you know if there is a problem.

 

[dolfan]

I e-mailed one of the schools I went to for classes to see if they could provide any information (shout out to Cooke School of Real Estate in St. Petersburg). The registrar there e-mailed the state for me and they replied within a day (funny how they won't do that when you e-mail them yourself - I still have no gotten a reply). To the person's credit who wrote the e-mail, they were very detailed and helpful. While they didn't answer my question directly, they pointed me in the right direction for finding the information. I will post below so other people with this same question can get answers. But to make a long story short: No, a trainee does not have to sign a report in order to get credit, however, as per USPAP, their name must be mentioned in the certification and an explanation of the assistance they provided must be mentioned somewhere in the report.

Good afternoon,

Your request for information about experience credit for appraisal reports that you did not sign has been forwarded to our office for follow-up. We are pleased to be of assistance with your question “Does an appraiser trainee need to sign a report in order to get credit for the hours worked?”.

You may be aware that any assignments that are submitted by an applicant for credit toward the experience criteria are eligible for credit only when the reports are compliant with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), which includes compliance with Standard Rule 2-3 pertaining to the Certification of the report.

USPAP contains guidance to both the appraiser and the state regulatory agency through the use of the Advisory Opinions and the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Each of these sections contain information about the Certification and signatures for reporting. Specifically, Advisory Opinion 31 contains information that must be addressed when the trainee does not sign a report. And, the FAQ section titled Appraisal Reporting – Certification and Signatures, starting on Page 322 of the hard copy of the 2016-2017 Edition of USPAP provides several scenarios that address the Certification, signatures and significant appraisal assistance that may benefit you. All of the information in this section is important, but FAQ numbers 248, 250, 251, and 253 may be beneficial to you.

I am sure you understand that USPAP is copyrighted material. As such, I am unable to provide you with a copy of the information you have requested, so If your office does not have a copy, it is available to purchase online.

Until the audit of the requested reports is complete, I have no way of knowing if the specific FHA reports you have identified will receive credit toward your experience requirements. That will be determined by the review of the reports by the auditor. Of course, each report requested from your work experience log will be reviewed based upon the version of USPAP that was in effect at the time the report was completed.

We thank you for your inquiry and trust that the above information is useful to you.

On a different note, I tried to edit my original post to add this information so people wouldn't have to go through the entire thread to get to it. But I was unable to find a way to edit it. If someone could let me know how, or if a mod can add this to the OP, that would be great for future readers.

 

[Rick Stillman]

I e-mailed one of the schools I went to for classes to see if they could provide any information (shout out to Cooke School of Real Estate in St. Petersburg). The registrar there e-mailed the state for me and they replied within a day (funny how they won't do that when you e-mail them yourself - I still have no gotten a reply). To the person's credit who wrote the e-mail, they were very detailed and helpful. While they didn't answer my question directly, they pointed me in the right direction for finding the information. I will post below so other people with this same question can get answers. But to make a long story short: No, a trainee does not have to sign a report in order to get credit, however, as per USPAP, their name must be mentioned in the certification and an explanation of the assistance they provided must be mentioned somewhere in the report.



On a different note, I tried to edit my original post to add this information so people wouldn't have to go through the entire thread to get to it. But I was unable to find a way to edit it. If someone could let me know how, or if a mod can add this to the OP, that would be great for future readers.

You can only edit your post for one hour after it has been created. However - good job on your follow up. Good information to have, and I'm sure many others will benefit from your work.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I believe our state adopted the policy of half credits when either two signatures are present or an unsigned party is acknowledged in the report. I don't know anyone who got their hours in less than three years as a result.

 

[reviewbe]

I've found that a phone call to the state agency gets a faster answer. Of course, the downside is that you don't get that answer in writing.

And, I think this is what appraisal logs are for, whether applying for a license or a designation or whatever. Be on the log and be named in the report. If you sign a report, you are accepting responsible for everything in it, which doesn't make sense early on since you don't know what you are doing yet.