<span style='color:darkblue'>Terrell:
As has been mentioned, I am not so sure there is a case against you here (while that may be of little financial comfort to you), as you may surmise, and/or verify if you like, from the following account. It may prove to be some kind of an indicator. Also, I might add, a previous boss of mine (some years ago and prior to me working for him) once had a suit filed against him. His E&O immediately got him "dismissed" (for lack of the me knowing the right terminology) from the suit. As typical, the plaintiffs had named everyone, and their brother & his dog, as defendants. In the end, it only cost him some gray hair up -- until his E&O came to his (i.e., their mutual) rescue. (BTW, he contacted them pretty quick.) 'Course, he did receive an official Letter of Warning from (our esteemed & learned) Board at the time (erroniously) chastising him that no appraiser should ever appraise an improvement that no longer exists (i.e., the "mobile home" had burned to the foundation and the retrospective valuation was for insurance purposes).
Anyway, sorry for your grief. Keep us posted (for the next 10 days or 10 years, whichever it turns out to be). I hope the following may help some.
-- dcj
_________________
I obtained the following Complaint Letter (as well as the full disciplinary incident file including the actual appraisal report in question, the original written response, the "settlement terms," etc.) from the NCAB (as they had no choice but to turn it over via the equivalent of the State's version of the federal "Freedom of Information Act"). The respondent, who was the supervising appraiser, an MAI, and also an NCAB board member at the time (who incidentally, helped adjudicate my hearing -- see:
http://boardwatch.org/htmfiles/FAQ.htm -- but hell, he may have been the only sane/dissenting member at the time, as far as I know), settled without a hearing via a right favorable, in my opinion (considering some "board history" for such matters), "Consent Decree" via a non-published (well, until now, I guess) warning.
"This Administrative Warning does not constitute an
adjudication or finding of guilt by the Board, and will
not be published, reported or disseminated to other
licensing authorities. It is, however a matter of public
record. Take notice of this warning, and govern
yourself accordingly."
However, I do not know how any actual civil case (
or not) against this appraiser by the complainant (may have) panned out. If you are interested in finding out, let me direct your attention to one or the other of three numbers included at the end of this (public record) letter. The complainant may (or may not) be interested in talking; I have not contacted her. (Please consider emailing me if you do speak with her.) I suspect there may not have been a (clear cut) case as the report's (standard) assumptions and limiting conditions appears to have limited any potential liability from the appraisal to that from the actual client (the seller, and presumably for listing purposes, in this case). An "aggravating factor" perhaps, as determined on investigation via the Board's investigative staff, and as reflected in the "Probable Cause Summary" (Case # 99-0095 & 99-0096"), was that: "Respondents photographed the wrong property for comparable sale three."
FYI, The original valuation was at $438,000 (of which $153,000 was land value) while the (new, </span>bank's appraiser estimated $337,500. And, the measuring error, according to the actual appraiser's written response, was caused by "transposing" some preliminary measurement figures prior to mutiplication. (It sure could happen; btw, otherwise, it was a good, thorough-looking report). And also, keep in mind that the supervising appraiser/board member, addressed below, did not inspect the property for the appraisal (as he so indicated in the report), but only reviewed the trainee's report prior to delivery.
Well, one good thing, I guess, is that the NC Appraisal Board went ahead and investigated this complaint rather than simply trashing it, considering the "board member status" of the accused. On the other hand, let's not automatically give credit where it may not be due. The complainant (somewhat strategically I suspect), included the following text immediately prior to her signature. (Damn, if that wasn't clever.):
"I am the Legal Advisor for the Sheriff's Office in
Fayetteville and I am the Guardian Ad Litem Attorney
for this district."
Here's the letter:[/color]
________________
May 20, 1999
NCAB
Attn: Ms. Roberta Ouellette
Post Office Box 20500
Raleigh, NC 27619
RE: Grievance
Dear Ms. Ouellette,
I purchased a home located at 4257 Linden Road, Linden, North Carolina in March 1998. The home was marketed through Townsend Realty in Fayetteville and was marketed as a 3881 square foot home located on 54.72 acres of property. The seller had the house appraised through Tom Keith and Associates and the house was marketed in the MLS as a 3881 square foot home. There were also flyers that were prepared and left on the premises for prospective buyers which included the square footage of the home. I am enclosing a copy of a same.
I initially financed the home with a bridge loan through First Citizen's Bank in Fayetteville, North Carolina because of personal reasons. My bridge loan ended on March 17, 1999 and I had obtained financing through another financial institution so the I could close on April 22, 1999. The second institution had an appraiser, Dennis Chew, go out to my home to verify the information that I had submitted to them as to the specifications on the home.
In appraising my home, Mr. Chew found that there was a measuring error on Mr. Keith's appraisal. My home is apparently only 3293 square feet. Needless to say, my bankers were more than a little concerned about the error. My closing did not transpire as planned because of the square footage problem. The bank that was going to loan me the money to close on the bridge loan reversed their decision because the property was inadequate to support the loan as planned.
Neither First Citizens Bank nor I knew what to do to best handle this problem. I was told by professionals in town "not to worry" because the original appraisal firm, Tom Keith and Associates, was very reputable and that their errors and omissions insurance would certainly cover this type of error. I called Mr. Tom Keith and told him about the square footage discrepancy. Mr. Keith stated during this initial conversation that the square footage error probably wouldn't make any difference in the value of my property. I stated to him that my bank thought it made a very substantial difference in the value of my property. I asked him to please come out to my home and measure the house in order for him to verify the missing square footage. Mr. Keith came out the following afternoon and spent a great deal of time going through my home. When Mr. Keith was through, I asked him what his figures showed. He told me he would have to put all the measurement on his computer because my house was very difficult to measure. I asked him to call me the following day because my closing had been postponed due to the error.
The next morning a Mr. Robert Cardini called from New Bern, North Carolina. He introduced himself as the appraiser who actually measured the home on behalf of Tom Keith and Associates when he was employed there. He wanted to come and measure my home as to the missing square footage. Mr. Cardini later met my father at my house and measured the home as well. Mr. Cardini came by my office later in the afternoon. We had an extensive conversation. During the conversation, Mr. Cardini made a statement similar to Mr. Keith's comment reference the square footage error not really making a difference in the value of my property. I told Mr. Cardini that I had heard that comment from Mr. Keith previously and that I didn't want him to sit here and try to insult my intelligence with comments like that.
I set up an appointment with Mr. Keith to hopefully resolve this matter so that I could finally start some sort of financial arrangements with my bank. I took Mr. Keith a copy of the second appraisal done by Dennis Chew. Mr. Keith initially attempted to explain to me that any square footage difference really wouldn't make a difference in the value of my property. I explained to him that my bankers would certainly not accept that answer to resolve this problem. Next, Mr. Keith told me that I would have to bring the previous owner into this matter if I attempted to take legal recourse against him. Mr. Keith was very aware that the previous owner's spouse had died on the property due to an auger accident and that this was extremely emotional for her. Mr. Keith was also very aware that I would never bring the previous owner into anything because of the situation surrounding the death of her spouse. I told Mr. Keith that the previous owner had nothing to do with his firm making a 588 square foot mistake that the property was then marketed upon. Finally, Mr. Keith attempted to explain to me that he was an appraiser "barely making ends meet" because he was attempting to provide a service to this community by "supplying appraisers in training." By this point, I asked him what square footage had he in fact measured. Mr. Keith said he couldn't tell me that figure because he was still computing it.
I told Mr. Keith that I had devised a very simple solution to this matter: missing square footage times the cost per square foot that Mr. Keith's firm had appraised. I told Mr. Keith that to avoid litigation I was willing to forego the additional costs associated with my taxes, insurance, bridge loan payments, etc. Mr. Keith said that he had contacted his errors and omissions people and that this situation would not be covered. I asked him did he think this error should be borne by the Realtor alone? He stated, "You're the lawyer, you tell me." I explained to him that I understood he had a very good and long-standing relationship with Townsend Realty and didn't he perhaps want to take the opportunity to speak with Jimmy Townsend to see if they couldn't work this problem out between their respective insurance companies. The conversation ended with Mr. Keith explaining to me that I would need to do whatever I needed to do.
This past Tuesday, First Citizens was finally able to package a loan to get a mortgage in place. Of course, the package is a substantially more costly package. I will be paying about Seven Hundred additional dollars a month on my mortgage payment until I can find some resolution to my appraisal nightmare.
I thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I would appreciate one of your appraisers coming out and measuring my home as soon as possible. Please accept this correspondence as a formal complaint against Tom Keith.
I am the Legal Advisor for the Sheriff's Office in Fayetteville and I am the Guardian Ad Litem Attorney for this district. I see a great many sides to human nature through both of my occupations; however, I was personally appalled at Mr. Keith's weak attempts to blame everyone else for a grossly negligent error on his firm's part.
You may contact me at my home number, 910-980-0328; my page number, 910-435-7384; or my office number, 910-677-5481. With warmest personal regards, I remain
Very truly yours,
Deborah Bland Koenig[/color]
_____________
dcj
<span style='color:brown'>_________________
Correction above: "
perspective" (wrong word) changed to "
prospective" (right word).
My main objection to the handling of this case by the NCAB is the fact that, say, when a much lesser charge was made against NC appraiser, Allen Stafford (near Charlotte), he received a Published Reprimand, a permanent disciplinary record (to be added to), and was truly "run through the ringer" after preparing for a full hearing -- And his Value Was Correct! The value indication in the above case appears to have been off by $100,000! And the penalty was nothing (he had to take a USPAP course)! Also, had the NCAB been able to get away without prosecuting, there is a good chance they would not have (based on their past nonperformance in similar cases of which I am aware).
The biggest issue for non-guilty or only marginally guilty appraisers, who are judged as guilty and slammed by the NCAB, is that there is no way to meaningfully improve one's performance such that it will not happen again. One realizes that it (i.e., another bogus complaint and "conviction") is entirely at the whim of others who have successfully done it to you in the past -- No job (i.e., career) security at all! For some reason this appears to be a very difficult concept for some to fully grasp -- did they really do that much to you? What's the big deal? Stafford grasped it real well, he left real estate appraising. Tom Hildebrandt understands it real well too -- while in his case, we're sure the current NCAB intended to put him out of business -- And he was absolutely right in his appraising!
NCAB errors are never recognized and corrected, rather, they actually become precedent! Yep, these postings,
and your reading them, will make a difference. I very much appreciate your indulgence. In time, I believe we will basically end many or most of the corrupt and inept practices at the NCAB. In fact, I believe it may help prevent similar problems with a few other appraisal boards across the Country. Again, thank you for your assistance. Stay tuned -- more to come.
Terrel, your publicizing your situation was a very good idea, because: It is simply much harder for people to do wrong with other people watching!
dcj</span>
