What is USPAP, anyway?
If you’ve worked with an appraiser of any kind before, you’ve probably heard them reference this term.
USPAP is the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. It establishes the recognized ethical and performance standards for the appraisal profession in the United States. Compliance to USPAP is required for State Licensed and Certified Real Estate Appraisers.
USPAP is published and maintained by the Appraisal Standards Board (ASB) of the Appraisal Foundation, a non-governmental entity charged by Congress with promulgating appraisal standards. Through FIRREA, the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, the federal government has mandated that states enforce real property appraiser compliance with USPAP. In addition, many users of appraisal services, such as lenders and mortgage companies, have adopted USPAP and require employee or contract appraiser compliance.
USPAP is revised periodically, usually every year.
- It begins with a list of Definitions, and a Preamble defining the mission.
- It then declares a set of general Rules governing all disciplines of appraisal practice:
- The Ethics Rule
- the Competency Rule,
- the Scope of Work Rule,
- the Jurisdictional Exception Rule,
- and the Supplemental Standards Rule.
- It then sets forth 10 appraisal Standards, each containing a number of Standards Rules. Each Standard covers in detail the different tasks an appraiser might perform in the course of developing and reporting an appraisal, such as:
- “Real Property Appraisal Development”
- “Real Property Appraisal Reporting”
- “Business Appraisal, Development”
- Etc
- It includes a number of Statements on those 10 appraisal Standards, some retired, which are used to clarify or supplement the Standards.
- It also includes Advisory Opinions dealing with the application of USPAP in various scenarios, such as:
- “When does USPAP apply in valuation services?” and
- “Clarification of the client in a federally related transaction,” which describe real-life problems and how they would be governed under the Rules and Standards of USPAP.
Every appraiser is charged with knowing and following USPAP and must complete Continuing Education periodically to relearn the basics and become familiar with new Advisory Opinions and annual changes. At Aegis Appraisals, all of our appraisers regularly complete their continued education requirements to ensure federal compliance with the highest ethical standards. Our practice is based in integrity, and with integrity comes ensuring that every assignment we complete is USPAP compliant every step of the way. We have an established track record for performing reliable and ethically superior appraisals.
For more information regarding USPAP and the Appraisal Foundation, please visit: https://www.appraisalfoundation.org/
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