Unpaid VA Fee By Large Lender

[KYLECODY]

I have had the VA send their "letter" before that basically states if the lender won't pay up they "may" be required to pay for appraisals up front going forward. I still have not been paid on one from last April.


That company "changed names" supposedly but never quit running, only it was operating under a new name. Same loan officers, address and phone #, different lender name. I am guessing they will claim Company A is no longer in existence. My follow up emails to the VA never got returned.

 

[baggusbunny]

Completed a VA appraisal on 10/30/2018. I started following up the POC on the 1805 on the 31st day with no response. I started to expand my reach into this lender including processors & loan originators. I have left messages and sent emails to no less than 8 different people and received one response that it will be forwarded to their accounting department. That was over a month ago. When I follow up with her now I get no response. I have even tracked down (thank you google) and left several messages for people in their accounting department and have received no response.
I sent a request to the VA for payment assistance on 12/31/2018 and followed up on 01/03/2019. After no responses, I called and spoke to someone at the VA who said they will forward my assistance request to a supervisor. Few days later, no response from the VA. I call again and spoke to a supervisor. He told me they are busy and short-handed and they will send out letters when/if they get a chance but don't count on them to be able to apply any kind of assistance in this matter. I was told that Lenders Handbook Chap 10.12 (requesting payment up front) went away and is no longer applicable a long time ago. Later on that same day I got 2 appraisal requests (one minute apart), with one being for this same lender.
I've been appraising for 15 years and other than one company that went bankrupt early on in my career I have collected every fee. Anyone else have a similar experience and how did you deal with it?

I deal w/ Cleveland RLC, what lender is it that you are having this issue with?

 

[1963Clipper]

A couple things... first, the VA isn't your/our/my personal accounting service, and isn't party to the (implied) contract between the mortgage lender and the appraiser for services rendered. Second, VA Circular 26-07-04 states "VA reminds lenders that, when an appraisal is requested, the lender is certifying the approved fee being held for this purpose will be forwarded to the appraiser upon delivery of the appraisal.", and per the VAF 26-1805 supplied to the appraiser, "“On receipt of "Notice of Value" or advice from the Department of Veteran's Affairs that a "Notice of Value" will not be issued we agree to forward to the appraiser the approved fee which we are holding for this purpose.” Start quoting that on the submitted invoice, and lay out a late fee schedule should you not be paid shortly after the NOV is issued. Whether or not the lender ever collected funds from the Veteran and whether or not the loan has closed is a moot point - the requestor is still responsible for paying once the NOV is issued (or you somehow determine it ain't gonna be). Third, feel free to request it be reassigned if you have a documented history of slow or no pay by a particular lender. Nothing is going to perk the VA's ears up like a list from you of delinquent invoices from the same lender. Fourth, almost every State has a Agency you can complain about a lender to. In Jersey, it's the Dept of Banking and Insurance and Real Estate Commission.