USPAP Q&A's

The Appraisal Standards Board of the Appraisal Foundation has just released a set of questions and answers for USPAP.  There are several relevant Q&As for the personal property appraiser, including topics for altering photos, disclosure of prior services, encumbrances and liens on personal property, range of values and exposure time,  and differences between cost and value.

Overall a very good Q&A, and one which has many points that are useful for the personal property appraiser.

Here is the Q&A on photo alterations.

Question:

I recently submitted an appraisal report to my client and was subsequently requested to alter the photographs I included in my report. Am I permitted to alter photographs per a client’s request?

Response:

As with virtually every appraisal assignment, there are assignment conditions and contractual obligations with which the appraiser is expected to comply (provided the appraiser can produce credible assignment results and produce a report that is not misleading).
Clients sometimes request that photographs do not include certain items or entities that do not affect value. An appraiser may comply with such requests, except when doing so would result in a misleading appraisal report. For example, a photograph may include a person off to the side of the subject of the photo, and the appraiser may be able to crop the photo in a manner that would eliminate the person, but maintain a clear image of the subject of the photo. In this simple example, this would not be misleading and the appraiser could comply with the client’s request.

On the other hand, a photograph depicting a relevant physical characteristic (e.g. physical defect) cannot be altered or deleted simply because of a client’s request

To review all of the new USPAP Q&As, click HERE.