Dennis Norman
Last month the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4173, the “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009″, which contained a provision that would “sunset”, or put an end to, the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, which, since it went into effect back in May of last year has been controversial to say the least.
Today this bill was read by the Senate and referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
The bill would establish the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and give the director the authority to make rules to protect the consumer, including rules to assure “appraisal independence”. The bill gives the director 60 days from the date of enactment of this legislation to establish such appraisal rules and calls for the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) to sunset at the time the new rules go into effect. Granted, the new rules could cause just as many problems and be just as controversial as the HVCC but hopefully not.
The specific section of the bill that addresses HVCC and appraisal independence follows:
SEC. 4312. APPRAISAL INDEPENDENCE REQUIREMENTS.
(a) PROMULGATION OF REQUIREMENTS=Director shall lead a Negotiated Rulemaking Committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the Negotiated Rulemaking Act to promulgate appraisal independence requirements for residential loan purposes, and such Committee shall promulgate such requirements not later than the end of the 60-day period beginning on the date of the enactment of this title.
(b) CERTAIN REGULATION REQUIREMENTS—Regulations promulgated by the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee under this section—
(1) shall not prohibit lenders, the Federal National Mortgage Association, or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation from accepting any appraisal report completed by an appraiser selected,retained, or compensated in any manner by a mortgage loan originator—
(A) licensed or registered in accordance with section 1501 et seq. of the SAFE Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008; and
(B) subject to State or Federal laws that make it unlawful for a mortgage loan originator to make any payment, threat, or promise, directly or indirectly, to any appraiser of a property, for the purposes of influencing the independent judgment of the appraiser with respect to the value of the property, except that nothing in this section shall prohibit a person with an interest in a real estate transaction from asking an appraiser to—
(i) consider additional, appropriate property information;
(ii) provide further detail, substantiation, or explanation for the appraiser’s value conclusion; or
(iii) correct errors in the appraisal report; and
(2) shall include a requirement that lenders and their agents compensate appraisers at a rate that is customary and reasonable for appraisal services performed in the market area of the property being appraised.
(c) SUNSET.—Effective on the date the appraisal independence requirements are promulgated pursuant to subsection (a), the Home Valuation Code of Conduct announced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency on December 23, 2008, shall have no force or effect.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
We won in the House with this HVCC Sunset provision. Unfortunately the U.S. Senate is completely controlled by the banking industry. HVCC is the biggest banking scam and rape of the American public that I have witnessed in years. Name another case where the public is forced to pay 50% more for a service while being virtually guaranteed the poorest quality service on planet earth.
Here’s what HousingWatch has been saying about HVCC:
HOW HVCC Puts Appraisers in Awful Bind:
http://tinyurl.com/ykpg7wk
10 Things Homeowners Should Know about HVCC:
http://tinyurl.com/ykpg7wk
The fact that this Bill now sits in the Senate should tell everyone, who really controls the US Senate.
Yeah I read that story about “Are Appraisers The New Organized Crime”. They have the organized crime part right but failed to name Cuomo, Banks, & AMCs as the the mobsters. I couldn’t stop laughing when they said appraisers were making millions off of people.
It’s pretty obvious that this is one of the many stories being planted in the media lately to drum up public support for HVCC. Consumers and appraisers are getting reamed, raped and reamed again by banks and AMCs and they turn the story around and blame the appraisers for sticking to borrowers. Now that’s what I call a horse shit story.
Unfortunately when you’re earning a few billions bucks extra now off of the backs of appraisers you can afford to buy the media for spinning lies.
TAVMA & AMCs tried planting a similar story under Street Insider called “HVCC: Dead Or Alive”? It was basically stating that HVCC is a good thing that’s protecting consumers.
After I posted evidence proving that the story was a complete lie the story was removed from the web. I hope others will follow suit and warn the public about the lies that TAVMA is spinning about HVCC.
I personally love HVCC. I don’t see what the problem is. I get orders from AMC’s and charge the same fee I always have. I get paid in a timely manor and my livelivehood isn’t dependent on me making every purchase or refi a record value for that neighborhood. I’m also getting more work than I have in ten years as an appraiser. If you tell thesse AMC’s what your fee is and do them a good job you will get paid fast and have plendy of work and never have to call about pahyment. I do not understand what all the fuss is about from the appraisal industry.
Charlesbuddy;
Your comment clearly indicates why you get more work now then before the hvcc, you’re clueless. When the HVCC came along I said self “this will only benefit appraisers who can’t keep real clients, for whatever reason (bad personality, stupid, types in all cap’s, poor service, marginal work product, etc.)”. The reason why I charged twice as much as an AMC is because when I charge 250 I got buried with orders from those who desire to work with a quality appraiser, this was prior to the hvcc of course. The reason you now get so much work from AMC’s is because they like the lowest bidder and really dont care about things like proper use of the english language, proper use of the appraisal forms and/or appraisal experience, education or accomplishments. So you may be prospering now, but rest assured – those appraisers who have their s%*t together, want a nice life for their family and want to retire someday hate you. That’s right, you are making it more difficult for every good appraiser in the US. You should be ashamed of yourself. BTW I don’t work for AMC’s, they desire folks like you and won’t pay my fee’s. And I promise I’ll be here after you have gone broke doing 450 dollar appraisals for $250. Door knob.