Two New Appraisal Related Bills Filed in Florida

The Florida Legislative Session does not start until March 5, 2013, but State Representatives and Senators have been filing bills in advance. Two have been filed with implications for Florida Appraisers, and those expecting to file applications to become registered or certified appraisers in the Sunshine State.

One was filed in the House, and one in the Senate. In the House, it's HB 667 - Real Estate Brokers and Appraisers. On the Senate side, it's SB 852 - Real Estate Brokers and Appraisers.  The bills are identical and intended to amend Chapter 475, Part II to mesh with new requirements imposed by the Appraiser Qualifications Board of the Appraisal Foundation. One of the amendments requires a Supervisory Appraiser to be either a Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser or a Certified General Real Estate Appraiser. If passed and signed into law, Licensed Appraisers will no longer be able to supervise Registered Trainee Appraisers.

An interesting provision in the bill amends Chapter 120, F.S. to require Summary Hearings by the Division of Administrative Hearings for cases involving real estate appraisers. I have a lot to learn about this process and am anxious to learn how this amendment was proposed. Watch this space for updates as details emerge.

AMC - Proposed FREAB Rules

The Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board met February 4th and 5th, 2013. Their agenda included a number of items of interest, including the docket of cases to be considered by the board, licensee counts, proposals for new rules and amendments to existing rules.

Two are extremely important to Florida appraisers:

61J1-4.010 - Supervision and Training of Registered Trainee Appraisers

61J1-9.002 - Standards of Professional Practice for Appraisal Management Companies; Development and Communications of Real Estate Appraisals

61J1 - 9.002 is a brand new rule, and is being proposed to implement amendments made to Chapter 475 Part II related to the regulation of Appraisal Management Companies. This rule is a work in progress and IS NOT final. The PRELIMINARY text is reproduced after the jump. Although changes were made to the document below during the meeting, it's important to take a look at what they're working on.

The photograph accompanying this post is of Michael J. Rogers, MAI, SRA. Mike is a past Chairman and current member of the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board. He is a State-Certified General Appraiser, and the principal of Rogers Valuation and Acquisition, Inc. in Pensacola, Florida. Although Mike is not involved with appraisal management companies, he has taken the lead to develop and fine tune the Standards of Practice for Appraisal Management Companies. It's his goal to ensure appraiser independence is preserved and that appraisal management companies comply with clearly  defined standards of practice.

Although others on the board support these initiatives, Mike could use some support and suggestions to ensure the standards of practice are meaningful, and actually make it through the rules making process. 

See the proposal after the jump.

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