Federal actors could have responded to the appraisers’ warning and prevented the crisis On July 9, 2013 I participated in a radio interview with a lobbyist for the 100 largest financial firms. The San Francisco radio program host asked me what question I would ask the lobbyist and I said that any discussion should begin with allowing him to state his view of what caused the crisis. In the course of his explanation, he bemoaned the fact that there was no warning about the crisis. I found this ironic because I had just published that morning an article about how the...
The implosion of the real estate bubble reverberated across the American landscape. Neither residential nor commercial markets were spared. This implosion not only had a very palpable effect on the economy, but on the political debate of this nation as well. That political debate—as it seems is often the case—has turned to finger-pointing. Those fingers have now curled up into a fist, and that fist is now knocking on the doors of appraisers across the country. In the aftermath of the economic downturn, many banks were taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) after their balance sheets dived...
The Appraisal Institute and the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers jointly sent a letter Feb. 28 to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration and the Comptroller of the Currency expressing concern about the broad reach of a proposed Interagency Appraisal Complaint form. The agencies intend to provide a copy of the form to individual complainants, who, in turn, will return to the agency for information gathering and potential referral. In its letter, AI and ASFMRA expressed concern that the proposed form may not be the most effective approach and instead recommended complaint forms...
Agencies Issue Final Rule on Appraisals for higher-priced Mortgage Loans Washington, D.C. – Six federal financial regulatory agencies today issued the final rule that establishes new appraisal requirements for “higher-priced mortgage loans.” The rule implements amendments to the Truth in Lending Act made by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act). Under the Dodd-Frank Act, mortgage loans are higher-priced if they are secured by a consumer’s home and have interest rates above certain thresholds. For higher-priced mortgage loans, the rule requires creditors to use a licensed or certified appraiser who prepares a written appraisal...
Filing a Complaint Against ES Appraisal Services With Arizona Board of Appraisal The Board of Appraisal has received information that ES Appraisal Services, registration #40150, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and is closing its doors for business. If you have an open invoice on an appraisal completed for ES Appraisal Services in Arizona, which is past the 45 days required by statute, please file a complaint with Rebecca Loar at the Board of Appraisal by January 11, 2013. A.R.S § 32-3675. Payment EXCEPT IN CASES OF BREACH OF CONTRACT OR SUBSTANDARD PERFORMANCE OF SERVICES, EACH APPRAISAL MANAGEMENT COMPANY SHALL...
In the last three months, since May 1, 2012, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has sued 45 individual appraisers and appraisal firms in its capacity as receiver for one of the failed banks or lending institutions under its supervision. The appraisers targeted by the FDIC in its recent cases are a more diverse group, geographically and professionally, than in earlier cases, but in other respects the FDIC’s recent cases represent more of the same familiar story — suing appraisers to recover money damages for allegedly appraising properties too high for loans extended during the peak of the real estate...
This post is for appraisers who have received a document entitled “Notice of Claim — Appraiser” relating to lawsuits filed by the FDIC (see example below). We have received multiple reports from appraisers and defense counsel about the mysterious “Notice of Claim.” The notices are so far nearly identical and state that the FDIC has filed a lawsuit for damages against one of two AMCS (either CoreLogic-eAppraiseIT or LSI Appraisal) based on one or more of the recipient appraiser’s appraisals and that the appraiser may be the subject of claims for negligence by one of those AMCs or by another...
The FDIC Settles Claims Against WaMu’s Top Officers. What’s the FDIC’s Case Against LSI Appraisal Worth? In March of this year, the FDIC sued Washington Mutual’s former CEO Kerry Killinger, its former chief operating officer Stephen Rotella and its former head of residential lending David Schneider for $900 million in alleged damages resulting from their “gross negligence” in running WaMu’s residential lending business. The FDIC claimed that their negligence caused what it is the biggest bank failure in U.S. history. It also alleged that two of them unlawfully transferred assets to their wives to protect the assets from potential collection efforts. Despite those...
In the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving Day, the FDIC sued 29 more individual residential appraisers. All of the appraisers sued in this round reside in California. The FDIC’s complaints against them uniformly allege that the appraisers were professionally negligent by overappraising the value of properties securing loans by failed Downey Savings in 2004-2007. The average claim against each appraiser is for approximately $350,000. The complaints concern both origination and review appraisals. One of the recently sued appraisers has now been sued twice by the FDIC. This is the third appraiser to be sued twice by the FDIC. Another...
The FDIC Suffers a Setback in Case Against Lender Processing Services and LSI Appraisal As reported in prior posts, the FDIC, as receiver for failed lender Washington Mutual, sued appraisal management company LSI Appraisal and its corporate parent Lender Processing Services for breach of contract and gross negligence on May 9, 2011 (see post here), and on July 22, LSI and LPS filed a motion to dismiss. In that motion, LSI argued that the FDIC’s gross negligence claim should be dimissed based on the economic loss rule, that the FDIC’s alter ego claims against LSI’s affiliated corporate entities (including LPS)...
