§ 93E-2-7.  Prohibited acts.

(a) No employee, director, officer, or agent of a registered appraisal management company or any other third party acting as joint venture partner or independent contractor shall influence or attempt to influence the development, reporting, result, or review of a real estate appraisal through coercion, extortion, collusion, compensation, inducement, intimidation, bribery, or in any other manner, including:

(1) Withholding or threatening to withhold timely payment for a real estate appraisal report.

(2) Withholding or threatening to withhold future business from a real estate appraiser or demoting or terminating or threatening to demote or terminate a real estate appraiser.

(3) Expressly or impliedly promising future business, promotions, or increased compensation for a real estate appraiser.

(4) Conditioning the ordering of a real estate appraisal report or the payment of a real estate appraisal fee, salary, or bonus on the opinion, conclusion, or valuation to be reached or on a preliminary estimate requested from a real estate appraiser.

(5) Requesting that a real estate appraiser provide an estimated, predetermined, or desired valuation in a real estate appraisal report or provide estimated values or comparable sales at any time before the appraiser's completion of the appraisal report.

(6) Providing to a real estate appraiser an anticipated, estimated, encouraged, or desired value for a subject property or a proposed or targeted amount to be loaned to the borrower. However, a real estate appraiser may be provided with a copy of the sales contract for purchase transactions.

(7) Providing to a real estate appraiser, or any entity or person related to the appraiser, stock or other financial or nonfinancial benefits.

(8) Allowing the removal of a real estate appraiser from a list of qualified appraisers used by any entity without prior written notice to the appraiser. The notice shall include written evidence of the appraiser's illegal conduct, substandard performance, or otherwise improper or unprofessional behavior or any violation of the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice or State licensing standards.

(9) Any other act or practice that impairs or attempts to impair a real estate appraiser's independence, objectivity, or impartiality.

(10) Requesting or requiring a real estate appraiser to collect a fee from the borrower, homeowner, or any other person in the provision of real estate appraisal services.

(11) Altering, modifying, or otherwise changing a completed appraisal report submitted by an independent appraiser without the appraiser's written knowledge and consent.

(12) Using an appraisal report submitted by an independent appraiser for any other transaction.

(13) Requiring an appraiser to indemnify an appraisal management company or hold an appraisal management company harmless for any liability, damage, losses, or claims arising out of the services performed by the appraisal management company, and not the services performed by the appraiser.

(14) Requiring an appraiser to provide the company with the appraiser's digital signature or seal.

(15) Requiring or attempting to require an appraiser to prepare an appraisal if the appraiser, in the appraiser's own independent professional judgment, believes the appraiser does not have the necessary expertise for the assignment or for the specific geographic area and has notified the appraisal management company and declined the assignment.

(16) Requiring or attempting to require an appraiser to prepare an appraisal under a time frame that the appraiser, in the appraiser's own professional judgment, believes does not afford the appraiser the ability to meet all the relevant legal and professional obligations if the appraiser has notified the appraisal management company and declined the assignment.

(b) Nothing in this section shall be construed as prohibiting an appraisal management company from requesting that a real estate appraiser:

(1) Consider additional appropriate property information.

(2) Provide further detail, substantiation, or explanation for the real estate appraiser's value conclusion, through the registrant's established dispute process.

(3) Correct errors in the real estate appraisal report.

(c) An appraisal management company shall not require or attempt to require an appraiser to prepare an appraisal if the appraiser may have a direct or indirect interest, financial or otherwise, in the property or transaction involving the appraisal.

(d) No appraisal management company procuring or facilitating an appraisal in connection with a consumer credit transaction secured by the principal dwelling of a consumer may have a direct or indirect interest, financial or otherwise, in the property or transaction involving the appraisal. (2010-141, s. 1; 2019-146, s. 4.)