Tagged: E&O

Ganter Brothers versus Appraisers 5

Ganter Brothers Versus Appraisers

It’s been a few months since we issued our last update on our friends (and yours) the Ganter brothers (Chris and Ben). The Ganters have suffered what for most people would be a series of embarrassing setbacks in their blatant attempts to use the legal system to pressure appraisers and/or their E&O carriers into paying off what we view as frivolous claims to save the cost of litigating the underlying dispute. For those of you who are reading this for the first time, we have issued two other alerts about this in the past 18 months. Links to the earlier...

Who Is Llano Financing Group? Who Is Carrington Capital Management? Why Are They Suing So Many Appraisers? - Imagecredit Flickr - Catherine Read 6

Why Are They Suing So Many Appraisers?

The grand scheme of suing appraisers! Who Is Llano Financing Group? Who Is Carrington Capital Management? Why Are They Suing So Many Appraisers? Short Summary Update 8-17-15: Hundreds of appraisers are being sued by two entities that invest in suing appraisers for profit.  At this time, the entity filing the most lawsuits against appraisers is Llano Financing Group, and most of the appraisals it is suing over were held by Impac Funding/Impac Mortgage.  Impac is expressly assigning its claims and rights to sue appraisers to the investors (according to the court complaints).  In the last three months, the investors have sued about 280 appraisers...

FHA vs USPAP - FHA vs USPAP - FHA requirements – Appraisers Caught in Catch 22 111

FHA Requirements vs USPAP

FHA Requirements vs USPAP – Appraisers Caught in Catch 22 Excerpt The new FHA Handbook will become effective on September 14, 2015. There has been much discussion of the implications of changing “should” to “must” in thousands of examples in the Handbook. As a Board member of the Arizona Association of Real Estate Appraisers as well as being on the FHA Roster, I have taken a good hard look at these requirements and then, it hit me as I was teaching the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) which is the basis of appraisal standards for every appraiser in...

Help I Got a Subpoena! - Errors & Omissions 4

Help I Got a Subpoena!

If you are in business long enough, you will get subpoenaed by someone involved in a dispute that may not even involve you. A subpoena is technically a court order compelling you to appear and testify or to produce records or both. If you are actually involved in the dispute as the plaintiff or defendant, your duty to comply with the subpoena is generally very clear and mandatory. However, when you are not the plaintiff or defendant, complying blindly with a subpoena without asking any questions may not be in your best interest. As a non-party, a subpoena may be...

Appraisers Participation Needed - NMAC Tackling BPO & CU Issues - Imagecredit Flickr - Miles Heller 2

Appraisers Participation Needed – Tackling BPO & CU Issues

The appraisal industry was blindsided once again only this time by the AG’s office when they determined that the Real Estate Appraiser Board cannot regulate BPO’s. The New Mexico Appraiser’s Coalition and the Rio Grande Chapter of the Appraisal Institute sent a joint letter to the Appraisal Board prior to a hearing that was held in January to discuss the BPO language in the Appraiser Act. Although we feel we provided enough information to guide the Board, the Attorney General Representative at the meeting made the determination that the Appraisal Board had no jurisdiction over the BPO product. Even though...

FHA Appraisers Increased Liability & Responsibilty with New FHA Requirements 27

FHA Appraisers Increased Liability with New Requirements

FHA Appraisers Increased Liability & Responsibility with New FHA Requirements Excerpt New FHA Requirements Put More Responsibility and More Liability on FHA Appraisers After reviewing the new HUD handbook, my overall conclusion is that there were not many changes to the overall requirements other than the word MUST. The prior handbook was a list of items that should be completed and verified whereas the updated HUD handbook clearly states that the properties MUST meet these items and the appraiser MUST verify the items in question. The following is a list of FHA requirements that MUST be completed and verified by the appraiser....

Protect Yourself with a Limitation of Liability Clause . Limitation of liability clauses are contractual provisions used to cap the liability of a party to a contract or transaction. - Imagecredit Flickr - Tax Credits 3

Protect Yourself with a Limitation of Liability Clause

Set Your Limits and Protect Yourself with a Limitation of Liability Clause In a recent case on the West Coast, a certified general appraiser was sued for professional negligence by a commercial lender. The lender had made a high-interest, short-term loan to an  investor/developer for the purchase of a large parcel of land that the borrower planned to subdivide and sell as mini-ranches. The property was appraised for approximately $5 million in 2007, and the lender had loaned $3.2 million. Within months after closing, the borrower’s project began sputtering because of the financial crisis, and by early 2009, the borrower was in default. The property sold at...

5

What Should an Appraiser Do?

Burdensome indemnity language required by a lender or AMC Appraisers are often required to sign lengthy contracts to obtain assignments from lenders or Appraisal Management Companies. These contracts outline the scope of work, when the assignment is due, how to transmit reports and other items that require review and understanding. Once the contract is formalized, the appraiser is then legally required to comply with its’ provisions. One important and often troublesome requirement is the Indemnity Provision. The concept of indemnity means “security against hurt, loss or damage”. Through indemnity, one party can shift the responsibility of loss to another party...

LenderVend Requirement For Appraisers to Upload Copies of Appraisal Workfiles - Imagecredit Flickr - GotCredit 23

LenderVend Requirement For Appraisers to Upload Copies of Appraisal Workfiles

Many residential appraisers we insure and several appraiser organizations have contacted us in the last few days about an appraisal management company’s new requirement that their panel appraisers upload a PDF copy of their appraisal workfile for each assignment they perform.  The AMC is LenderVend, LLC and, according to its website, it is affiliated with mortgage lender Provident Funding. We understand that LenderVend’s requirement imposes an additional burden on appraisers.  We’ve also heard firsthand from appraisers about the anxiety the policy is creating because of the unknown uses to which the workfile may be put by the AMC.  As is the case with any peculiar...

Thank you Wall Street 3

Thank You Wall Street for Killing off my Hallmark Moments

Thank you Wall Street, your mothers must be very proud of you! I’m not sure when it happened, but sometime in my lifetime the family home stopped being where you chose to live to raise your family and put down roots and became an investment asset. It seems this transformation began when investment bankers on Wall Street first realized residential mortgage lending represented a potential source of huge profits. Prior to the Great Depression, a typical mortgage loan was for 50% of the cost of a home, was interest only, was for 5 years with a balloon payment due at...

xml sitemap
blank