Navigating the Danger Zone: When Commenting on Another Appraisal
Sep 23, 2026
Divorce case. You did a clean appraisal, you delivered it, and now the attorney who hired you slides the other side's report across the table. "Why is there a fifty thousand dollar difference between your number and his?" Or the less subtle version, "Give me ten things I can use to pick this apart."
Hit the brakes.
USPAP defines appraisal review as the act or process of developing an opinion about the quality of another appraiser's work. Notice what is NOT in there. Communicating. You do not have to write it, sign it, or hand it to anybody. Forming the opinion IS the review.
But here is where I hear this taught wrong. Reviewing the opposing appraisal is not a violation. Review appraisers do exactly that in litigation every day and they do it correctly. What USPAP prohibits is advocacy... performing an assignment with bias, advocating the cause or interest of any party or issue. So the problem was never the review. It was the ASK. If that attorney would not accept "his report is well supported and I have no criticism of it" as your answer, he is not hiring you to review anything. He is hiring you to advocate. And you cannot relabel your way out of it by calling it consulting or litigation support, because the Ethics Rule covers ALL of appraisal practice.
Handing the report back is usually my answer. Tell him to hire a separate independent expert. If you do take it, take it as a REAL assignment... new engagement letter, new scope of work, new fee, its own workfile, and a report that satisfies Standards 3 and 4.
And no, you cannot invoke a jurisdictional exception to dodge questions on the stand. A JE is not something you invoke. It happens automatically when a law or regulation makes compliance impossible, and then you have to identify that law and cite it in your report. An attorney's instruction does not create one.
No fee is worth your license. Set your boundaries in the engagement letter before the case starts, and let an independent reviewer do the reviewing.
Check out The Appraiser Coach Podcast for more info on this topic:
