AppraiserLoft, the company in question, has been at the center of several non-payment and late-payment claims from appraisers, former employees and other parties, before and after it shuttered suddenly in October, according to public records.
In this bundle of cases, administrative law judge Diane Mihalsky found that the company failed to pay Arizona appraisers for completed work within the required 45 days set by Arizona state law -- 181 times. It appears AppraiserLoft either resolved or made attempts to resolve 10 of those cases, but appraisers in the remaining 171 cases say they haven't seen payments yet, court documents show.
Mihalsky, in a June 6 order, recommended that the Arizona Board of Appraisal fine AppraiserLoft $5,000 for each of the 171 violations, totaling $855,000, and revoke the company's license as an appraisal management company.
AppraiserLoft joins Global Appraisal Solutions, Appraisal Mediation Solutions, (Larry Holzer affiliated companies), and Security One Valuation Services (a Todd Barfield enterprise), as the poster children of fly by night Appraisal Management Companies. The unpaid fees are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Please be careful in extending credit to unknowns.
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3 comments:
Sure you need a lot of capital to be in the AMC business. Lenders take the checks from the consumers,deduct their share;turn over the difference to the AMC's and 30-45+ days, the AMC's send the appraisers the leftovers... maybe! Note every assignment or has a 48 hr policy on reporting the appraisal. Insanity at best. The consumer should pay the appraier direct. It's his money he assumes is all going to the appraiser. Guess again..... A lenders changes from AMC to AMC, & it's leaving the appraiser out in the cold. One month he has business and suddenly the lender decides to us an alternative AMC or perhaps 3 or 4 more.
It's great to see that our state boards are raking in the money from AMCs. Meanwhile appraisers continue to work for wages that are far below the minimum set by federal law. With regard to Appraiser Loft orders I suppose they were working for free.
GD these state appraisal boards and the alledged professional appraisal groups that continue to set on their thumbs while billing appraisers for being members.
As a former member of a state appraisal board, my experience is that any dollars paid in the way of fines rarely, if ever, make their way to fund the activities of the agency.
In Florida, fines, fees and costs assessed as a result of discipline are paid to the state general fund.
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