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<section article="gbo" article_name="Business Occupations and Professions" number="16-5B-11" title_number="16" title_name="Real Estate Appraisers, Appraisal Management Companies, and Home Inspectors" subtitle_number="5B" subtitle_name="Real Estate Appraisal Management Companies">
  <level label="a">
    <level label="1">
      <text>Each appraisal management company shall ensure that real estate appraisal services are provided independently and free from inappropriate influence and coercion under the appraisal independence standards established under Section 129E of the Truth in Lending Act.</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <level label="i">
        <text>An appraisal management company shall pay an appraiser reasonable and customary fees consistent with the presumptions of compliance defined under federal law.</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>The Commission may not bring disciplinary action under § 16–702.2 of this title or recommend criminal sanctions under § 16–706 of this title based solely on subparagraph (i) of this paragraph.</text>
      </level>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="b">
    <text>An employee, partner, director, officer, or agent of an appraisal management company may not influence or attempt to influence the development, reporting, result, or review of an appraisal through coercion, extortion, collusion, compensation, inducement, intimidation, bribery, or any other means, including:</text>
    <level label="1">
      <text>compensating, colluding, or influencing, or attempting to compensate, collude, or influence a person involved in an appraisal for the purpose of causing the appraised value assigned under the appraisal to the property to be based on a factor other than the independent judgment of the appraiser;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>mischaracterizing, or suborning any mischaracterization of, the appraised value of a property in conjunction with a consumer credit transaction;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="3">
      <text>seeking to influence an appraiser or otherwise encouraging a targeted value in order to facilitate the making or pricing of a consumer credit transaction;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="4">
      <text>withholding or threatening to withhold timely payment for an appraisal report or for the provision of real estate appraisal services when the appraisal report or services are provided in accordance with a contract between the parties;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="5">
      <text>withholding or threatening to withhold future business from an appraiser;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="6">
      <text>demoting or terminating or threatening to demote or terminate an appraiser;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="7">
      <text>expressly or impliedly promising future business, promotions, or increased compensation for an appraiser;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="8">
      <text>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 provided by the appraisal management company, and not the services performed by the appraiser;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="9">
      <text>conditioning a request for an appraisal or the payment of an appraisal fee or salary or bonus on:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>an opinion, a conclusion, or a valuation to be reached; or</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>a preliminary estimate or opinion requested from an appraiser;</text>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="10">
      <text>requesting that an appraiser provide:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>an estimated, predetermined, or desired valuation in an appraisal report; or</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>estimated values or comparable sales at any time before the appraiser’s completion of an appraisal;</text>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="11">
      <text>except for a copy of the sales contract for purchase transactions, providing to an appraiser an anticipated, estimated, encouraged, or desired value for a subject property or a proposed or target amount to be loaned to the borrower;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="12">
      <text>providing to an appraiser, or a person related to the appraiser, stock or other financial or nonfinancial benefits;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="13">
      <text>allowing the removal of an appraiser from an appraiser panel without prior written notice to the appraiser;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="14">
      <text>obtaining, using, or paying for a second or subsequent appraisal, or ordering an automated valuation model, in connection with a mortgage financing transaction unless:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>there is a reasonable basis to believe that the initial appraisal was flawed and the basis is clearly and appropriately noted in the loan file;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>the subsequent appraisal or automated valuation model is done under a bona fide prefunding or postfunding appraisal review or quality control process;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iii">
        <text>a second appraisal is required under State or federal law; or</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iv">
        <text>the second appraisal or automated valuation model is ordered by an appraisal management company in response to a request by a client in order to satisfy client valuation policies for the property being appraised and the second appraisal or automated valuation model is ordered by the client prior to the completion of the first appraisal; or</text>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="15">
      <text>any other act impairing or attempting to impair an appraiser’s independence or impartiality.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="c">
    <text>Nothing in subsection (a) or (b) of this section may be construed to prohibit an appraisal management company from asking an appraiser to:</text>
    <level label="1">
      <text>consider additional appropriate property information, including the consideration of additional comparable properties to make or support an appraisal;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>provide further detail, substantiation, or explanation for an appraiser’s value conclusion; or</text>
    </level>
    <level label="3">
      <text>correct errors in an appraisal report.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
</section>
