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Judge Rules Appraiser/Lender Owe no duty of care

wha, well i'm going to tell all my lenders to stop asking for photos of everything inside and outside. but why wouldn't you have those things in the photos since it's digital. overall, good comments, info and thought processes here.
 
ucbruin said:
Not required....
Beyond the required scope of 9 out 10 appraisers....
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Actuallly... FHA et al are pretty strict about this. You need to locate the leach field and tank approximately, distance to well, etc. It is no different than reporting zoning, etc. You need to ID if the Septic is surfacing. Caveat the rest away. Pulling the lid on the well tells you what the measured flow is unless a really old well. Ask how deep and how much flow. If they don't know state "The owner did not know."

I appraised a church and there was a huge area of leach field that was surfacing behind the church. I flagged it and replacing that leach field is a $20,000 plus project.
 
Terrel L. Shields said:
Actuallly... FHA et al are pretty strict about this. You need to locate the leach field and tank approximately, distance to well, etc. It is no different than reporting zoning, etc. You need to ID if the Septic is surfacing. Caveat the rest away. Pulling the lid on the well tells you what the measured flow is unless a really old well. Ask how deep and how much flow. If they don't know state "The owner did not know."

I appraised a church and there was a huge area of leach field that was surfacing behind the church. I flagged it and replacing that leach field is a $20,000 plus project.
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The OP's very elusive on the "who, when, where" in regards to the pumping, filling and draining of the septic tank....the when and how she discovered the distance between the well & septic issues....she always reverts back to the appraiser's requirements for FHA inspection and how the appraiser made some egregious errors in reporting. Which it sounds as if they may have.

I pressed her pretty hard and got out of her that she did not go to the building, planning department and look at the septic's maintenance records or, any other records for that matter prior to the purchase.
 
I don't know if she has a legitimate claim to the appraiser's E&O. We've heard of appraisers getting sued by borrowers for making errors in their reports. I do know I would never have attempted to drag FHA and the lender into it unless if my atty was an expert at such and could articulate the allegations more accurately than what the OP has been attributing to their atty. By the time we get to alleging intentional fraud and conspiracy to damage the property owner it seems (TO ME) that undermines a concurrent or subsequent allegation of negligence for an E&O claim. Intentional is intentional, and negligent is negligent. Not the same thing.

Deep pocket "accuseds" often settle in lieu of spending the money on defending or risking the decision. That's not an admission of anything other than it being more expedient to simply pay the $50k that the defense costs directly to their accuser rather than to spend it anyway for what may be an uncertain outcome at trial. "Accusers" sometimes do the same, for the same reason: expediency vs uncertainty.

But all these questions are legal in nature and have nothing to do with what professional appraisal practice is or isn't. Only the lawyers are capable of developing an informed opinion on how any of this works out in a real court in the OPs state. The rest of us are more/less just guessing at it off a much more limited understanding of the law.

Meanwhile, the purpose of "client" and "intended use/intended user" is not to provide a shield to the appraiser against claims against significant errors the appraiser might make which affect the property owner. But rather to require the appraiser to fit the development and reporting for the assignment to the legitimate needs of the actual users of the appraisal and appraisal report. As opposed to proceeding under an unnecessary assumption that one widget will meet everyone's expectations regardless of who they are or what they're doing. And as a means of preventing anyone from moving that goalpost for the workproduct after the fact.

I didn't build this appraisal/appraisal report for BofA and per their specs; I built it for Fly-By-Night Mtg, MkIV LTD, incorporated in the Bahamas. The criteria by that applies to my conduct WRT meeting the SOW and reporting for that assignment are the specifics of the Fly-By-Night policies, not BofA policies.
 
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Terrel L. Shields said:
Actuallly... FHA et al are pretty strict about this. You need to locate the leach field and tank approximately, distance to well, etc. It is no different than reporting zoning, etc. You need to ID if the Septic is surfacing. Caveat the rest away. Pulling the lid on the well tells you what the measured flow is unless a really old well. Ask how deep and how much flow. If they don't know state "The owner did not know."

I appraised a church and there was a huge area of leach field that was surfacing behind the church. I flagged it and replacing that leach field is a $20,000 plus project.
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$20,000 to replace leach field on a church, $100,000 for a single family 3 Bedroom home, hmmm
 
Tiffany Gibbons said:
$20,000 to replace leach field on a church, $100,000 for a single family 3 Bedroom home, hmmm
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We don't know how much the OP paid for the property. Say they paid $300K. $100K on a $300K property would seem to me is placing an unfair burden on the property owner by local officials. Maybe they are going after the wrong parties
 
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