What Are Appraiser Ethics?
Appraisal is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. In our field as with any profession we are bound by ethical considerations. An appraiser’s primary responsibility is to his or her client. Normally, in residential practice, the appraiser’s client is the lender ordering the appraisal to decide whether to make the mortgage loan. Appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients — as a homeowner, if you want a copy of an appraisal report, you normally have to request it through your lender — obligations of numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, an obligation to attain and maintain a certain level of competency and education, and must generally conduct him or herself as a professional. Here, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously. Appraisers may also have fiduciary obligations to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itse
