Real Estate & Property Law

Appraiser Lack of Ethics or Kicked in the Teeth by the Low Ball Offer

By Alan Ackerman

Courant.com

Kenneth J. Jones was a property appraiser with a blemished record when state authorities welcomed him into the fold two years ago as they tried to push down the price of a parcel they took for a highway right of way.

Push it down, he did.

Along the way, Jones would play a starring role, at $200 an hour in taxpayers' money, in a debacle that would cost the state more than $28 million and raise serious questions about how Connecticut values the property it takes by eminent domain.
 

When appraisers get themselves in trouble, at least in Michigan, they frequently go through the hearing process without counsel.  At times the conduct, properly explained, is not deserving of State Licensing Board sanctions.  

At other times, appraisers, with or without counsel, have missed the uniform standards of professional appraisal practice so substantially, that the violation requires a sanction from the Licensing Board.

In Connecticut, an appraiser apparently had already been sanctioned, while known by the governmental agency attorneys trying to acquire the property, yet was pushed through as the appraiser of choice by the State of Connecticut because his number could be and would be low enough.   He was arguably an 'out of state' individual especially knowledgeable in the type of property being taken.  When it all came through at trial, he simply was the local appraiser 'purchased' because he could give the lowest value.

The above short synopsis of the article is but a small part of the problem inherent in the approach taken by Connecticut officials.  In most jurisdictions, at least with regard to the State Department of Transportation, attorneys will take tough and hard-nose positions on what is compensable and what is not compensable, but rarely is it seen where they simply buy off an appraiser in order to come to the lowest number.  Any experienced eminent domain trial attorney has found this to occur, but it is the exception rather than the rule.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on December 10, 2009 (boomark / email).