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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 -- obligations of numerical accuracy
depending on the assignment parameters, an obligation to attain and maintain a
certain level of competency and education, and must generally conduct him or
herself as a professional. Here, we take
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.
We only perform to the highest ethical standards possible. We don't do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. We don't do assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal profession’s biggest no-no, because it would tend to make appraisers inflate the value of homes or properties to increase their paycheck. We don't do that. Other unethical practices may be defined by state law or professional societies to which an appraiser belongs. 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. You can be assured of 100 percent ethical, professional service.
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Appraiser Ethics