Eminent Domain Report

On Tuesday, March 20, beginning at 11:30 a.m. PT, Chapter One of the International Right of Way Association (IRWA) will be holding a joint luncheon with the Southern California Chapter of the Appraisal Institute at Luminarias Restaurant in Monterey Park, CA. Nossaman’s  Litigation Department Chair and Co-Chair of its Real Estate Practice Group, David Graeler, will serve as the luncheon speaker, providing a presentation entitled Scenarios to Consider Appraising without USPAP. To register, please visit the IRWA Ch. 1 website here.

The International Right of Way Association is a ...

Last summer, I wrote about the Appraisal Institute’s controversial effort to promote legislation in California (known as AB 624) that would enable licensed real estate appraisers performing appraisals for non-federally-related transactions to use any nationally or internationally recognized standard of valuation. I commented at the time that it wasn’t difficult to envision a parade of horribles that might result should appraisers be permitted to identify obscure international standards for an appraisal assignment in order to drive value up or down for a litigant.

Not ...

Six weeks ago, I wrote about California Assembly Bill 624 and the Appraisal Institute’s effort to change California law that presently requires all licensed appraisers to comply with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP).  While the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) would still mandate that USPAP be followed for federally-related transactions (i.e. appraisals for a financial institution that is federally insured), I observed that a licensed appraiser in California performing an appraisal for a ...

Two days ago, the Appraisal Foundation issued a memorandum to Appraisal Regulatory System Stakeholders that warned of the Appraisal Institute approaching members of Congress to sponsor legislation that would essentially dismantle the current national appraiser regulatory system.  The Appraisal Foundation states that provisions being suggested by the Appraisal Institute include the elimination of the Appraisal Subcommittee and the removal or significant dilution of the Congressional authority of the Appraisal Foundation."  It asserts that removing the existing ...

Yesterday, I spoke at the Appraisal Institute's 42nd Annual Litigation Seminar.  As usual, it was a great event, well attended by many of the top eminent domain appraisers in Southern California.  I spoke about recent developments in a presentation entitled "Eminent Domain: Where Are We, and Where Have We Been?"  [PDF] 

While I am confident that anyone in attendance would tell you I was brilliant, I want to focus today on some issues that arose in Ted Whitmer's presentation entitled Legal Instructions, Litigation & Appraisal Institute Standards.  Ted's firm, Appraiser Defense