I don’t think it should come as a genuine surprise to most people familiar with the field, but yesterday a New York appellate court affirmed the trial court’s decision denying First American Corp. and First American eAppraiseIt’s (now part of CoreLogic) motion to dismiss in the action filed by New Read more…
This is the first of a series of articles that will discuss valuation liability issues which either do not stem from true appraisals or affect parties besides appraisers. Appraisers are by no means the only parties targeted for valuation liability claims. While appraisers are frequent targets in connection with their Read more…
First American CoreLogic — currently a subsidiary of First American Corp. in Santa Ana, CA but soon to be an independent company under the name CoreLogic — has filed a lawsuit against a number of appraisal management and technology companies: Fiserv, IntelliReal, Interthinx, Lender Processing Services, Precision Appraisal Services, Real Read more…
On March 31, 2010, Judge Virginia Phillips in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismissed eight homeowner/borrower class actions against home builders and their affiliated mortgage companies. Filed on the same day by the same group of law firms, the eight lawsuits alleged that the builders Read more…
Many appraisers call and write us with regard to the hardships caused by being blacklisted by a lender. Some appraisers want to know if filing a lawsuit would fix their problem — either with a court order or monetary damages. As an insurance provider, we’re in the defense business, helping Read more…
Commercial appraisers are more likely than residential appraisers to be in the position of considering whether to sue a client for unpaid appraisal fees because their fees for a single engagement are higher, sometimes $10,000 or more. Residential appraisers, however, occasionally also face the decision when unpaid fees have accumulated Read more…
In November, Appraiser Law Blog reported about “rotten reviews” being used by mortgage insurance companies to deny mortgage insurance claims by lenders. The reason I wrote about the issue was that in some cases, mortgage insurers’ and other parties’ usage of rotten review appraisals is leading to unjustified claims against Read more…
Here is a lender that is doing something right for appraisers (and itself). I wish more lenders would do things like this. As I’ve written elsewhere on Appraiser Law Blog, more than 50% of claims against appraisers are being filed by property owners and borrowers. These parties are not the Read more…
Thanks largely to the ill-informed efforts of New York’s Attorney General and the HVCC, we are now witnessing more insidious and blatant attempts to manipulate appraisers than we saw during the height of the real estate bubble. Appraisers are being besieged with demands, threats and complaints from borrowers, sellers and Read more…
We previously commented that Nationstar Mortgage is the lender who currently asserts the most claims against appraisers. In the last week, we have observed a new tactic being employed by Nationstar and feel that appraisers need to be aware of it to protect themselves. A typical claim by Nationstar against Read more…