The HVCC code of conduct is the result of a legal settlement with the attorney general of New York. It is applied nationwide. And it should be considered a case study in the value of the legislative process: If the HVCC had been a bill introduced into Congress, it would have never passed without having undergone drastic changes. But it wasn’t a bill and it isn’t a law; it’s a legal settlement by one state’s attorney general, imposed on all 50 states.
Every public policy has unintended consequences. But that doesn’t mean that the consequences are unforeseen. Plenty of people foresaw the unintended consequences arising from the HVCC. Because it didn’t go through a legislative committee system, because it wasn’t passed by two houses, and because it wasn’t signed by a governor or president, those foreseeable but unintended consequences could be — and were — ignored. As a matter of fact Cuomo was a paid board member of AMCO, an appraisal management company. His buddy is Ed Davidson (a major campaign contributor of Cuomo) and was the CEO of AMCO, which was sold to SIRVA and renamed Valuation Services, LLC. It is reported that Davison has rights to future income from Valuation Services, LLC. (and I wouldn't be surprised if Cuomo does get a couple of bucks from it either, but that's pure conjecture on my part.)
HVCC was supposed to include Independent Valuation Protection Institute, which is a place to report fraud and coercion. That was never funded so AMCs are unregulated. It was rumored that Ed Davidson was to head the IVPI. As it stands, HVCC is nothing but a profit center for the big banks who own them.
After 18 years in the mortgage industry, I can’t believe that such poorly written legislation is being enforced and the only loser is the consumer. All wholesale lenders have an appraisal review process, there is no way to pay off or entice an appraiser to bring in a value that isn’t supported by comps. If you do the appraisal will be cut and the appraiser will be placed on the black list. AMC’s can just as easily enticed, so how does this solve the so called problem? The bottom line is that consumers will pay 3.8 billion dollars more in appraisal fees this year… What a Gong Show!
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