54-4131. APPRAISER INDEPENDENCE. (1) It shall be a violation of this act for any employee, director, officer or agent of an appraisal management company registered in this state to engage in any act or practice that violates appraisal independence as described in or pursuant to the provisions of this act.

(2) For purposes of subsection (1) of this section, acts or practices that violate appraisal independence shall include:

(a) Any appraisal of a property offered as security for repayment of the consumer credit transaction that is conducted in connection with such transaction in which a person with an interest in the underlying transaction compensates, coerces, extorts, colludes, instructs, induces, bribes or intimidates a person, appraisal management company, firm or other entity conducting or involved in an appraisal, or attempts to compensate, coerce, extort, collude, instruct, induce, bribe, or intimidate such a person, for the purpose of causing the appraisal value assigned, under the appraisal, to the property to be based on any factor other than the independent judgment of the appraiser;

(b) Mischaracterizing, or suborning any mischaracterization of, the appraised value of the property securing the extension of credit;

(c) Seeking to influence an appraiser or otherwise to encourage a targeted value in order to facilitate the making or pricing of the transaction; and

(d) Withholding or threatening to withhold timely payment for an appraisal report or for appraisal services rendered when the appraisal report or services are provided for in accordance with the contract between the parties.

(3) The requirements of subsections (1) and (2) of this section shall not be construed as prohibiting an appraisal management company, employee of an appraisal management company, consumer or any other person with an interest in a real estate transaction from asking an appraiser to undertake one (1) or more of the following:

(a) Consider additional appropriate property information, including the consideration of additional comparable properties to make or support an appraisal;

(b) Provide further detail, substantiation or explanation for the appraiser’s consideration in the value conclusion; or

(c) Correct objective errors in the appraisal report.

(4) Any appraisal management company, employee of an appraisal management company or any other person involved in a real estate transaction involving an appraisal in connection with a consumer credit transaction who has a reasonable basis to believe an appraiser is failing to comply with the uniform standards of professional appraisal practice, is violating applicable laws, or is otherwise engaging in unethical or unprofessional conduct, shall refer the matter to the board.

(5) Every AMC shall establish and comply with processes and controls reasonably designed to ensure that the AMC, in engaging an appraiser, selects an appraiser who is independent of the transaction and who has the requisite education, expertise and experience necessary to competently complete the appraisal assignment for the particular market and property type. Every AMC shall establish and comply with processes and controls reasonably designed to ensure that the AMC conducts its appraisal management services in accordance with the requirements of 15 U.S.C. 1639e (a) through (i), and regulations thereunder.

History:

[54-4131, added 2016, ch. 131, sec. 1, p. 393.]