Appraiser Ethics

Appraisal is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. In our field as with any profession we are bound by ethical considerations.

An appraiser's primary responsibility is to his or her client. Normally, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal to decide whether to make the mortgage loan.

Appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients. As a homeowner, if you want a copy of an appraisal report, you normally have to request it through your lender.

Appraisers may also have fiduciary obligations to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is limited to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the assignment.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also defines as unethical the acceptance of an assignment that is contingent on "the reporting of a pre-determined result (e.g., opinion of value)," "a direction in assignment results that favors the cause of the client," "the amount of a value opinion," and other things. This means you can be assured we are working to objectively determine the home or property value.

At Brian J. Davis, we ONLY accept assignments that we are qualified to perform and in locations that we are familiar with and have complete market data resources. We do NOT accept assignments "contingent" upon arriving at a particular value.

Every profession has inexperienced or unethical members that are willing to do just about anything for a buck.  Our IL Office of Banks and Real Estate (OBRE) and professional organizations are doing what they can to crack down on illegal and unethical appraisal practices.  You can find a list of Appraiser Disciplines on the OBRE website.  Further, the Federal Reserve, FDIC, NCUA, and the Office of Thrift Supervision have recently (10/2003) explained their position on "Appraiser Independence".