(1) Connotation analysis of real estate appraiser’s practice risks
We know that the working procedures of real estate appraisal include undertaking projects → valuation preparation → on-site inspection → writing valuation report → review and approval → Delivery report → Archive. From the perspective of work procedures, real estate appraisers write a real estate appraisal report through their own practice and deliver it to the client. After collecting the fee, the appraisal task is completed. But from the outset, the appraiser is taking on risk. Real estate valuation is a highly professional job. The valuation report issued by a real estate appraiser has legal effect, and many economic activities are based on it. Therefore, the state has formulated many relevant laws and regulations, clarifying that real estate appraisers must be responsible for the authenticity of the real estate appraisal reports issued, and stipulating corresponding responsibilities. The author believes that the connotation of the real estate appraiser’s practice risk can be understood as the liability loss of the corresponding economic activities caused by deviations in the authenticity of the content of the appraisal report when the real estate appraiser issues the appraisal report.
(2) Types of risks in the practice of real estate appraisers
From the perspective of current laws and regulations, the main risks that real estate appraisers may face in the course of practice There are the following types:
1. Civil Compensation Risk
Article 26 of the "Interim Provisions on the Qualification System for Real Estate Appraisers" (Jianfang [1995] No. 147) stipulates: "If a real estate appraisal error causes economic losses to the parties, the unit shall Bear liability for compensation. The unit may seek compensation from the real estate appraiser."
Article 25 of the "Registration and Management Measures for Real Estate Appraisers" (Ministry of Construction Order No. 100) reiterates that "During the real estate price evaluation process, if economic losses are caused to the parties due to violations of laws and disciplines or serious mistakes, The real estate price appraisal agency shall bear the liability for compensation, and the real estate price appraisal agency shall have the right to recover compensation from the signing real estate appraiser."
The above-mentioned documents only stipulate that the appraiser shall financially compensate the parties who have suffered losses, and will not affect the appraiser's professional qualifications.
2. Administrative penalty risk
Paragraph 5 of Article 28 of the "Interim Provisions on the Qualification System for Real Estate Appraisers" stipulates that "colluding with the client or deliberately making a false valuation report" , work errors resulting in heavy losses", "the registration unit shall give the party a warning, confiscate the illegal income, suspend the execution of business, revoke the "Real Estate Appraiser Practice Qualification Certificate" and "Real Estate Appraiser Registration Certificate", and may impose a fine." .
Article 30, Paragraph 1 of the "Measures for the Registration and Management of Real Estate Appraisers" also stipulates that "those who cause direct economic losses to the parties" shall be "imposed a fine of not less than three times but not more than 30,000 yuan of illegal income; no Those who obtain illegal income may be fined up to 10,000 yuan."
This is a relatively serious punishment, which is issued directly by the competent department. If the circumstances are serious, the "Practice Qualification Certificate" and "Real Estate Appraiser Registration Certificate" can be revoked, which will affect the appraiser's career future.
3. Risk of criminal punishment
my country's "Criminal Law" stipulates two related crimes for the practice of real estate appraisers, namely "the crime of providing false certification documents by intermediary organization personnel" and " It is a crime for personnel of an intermediary organization to make serious misrepresentations in the certification documents they issue."
Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 229 of the "Criminal Law" stipulate: "Personnel of intermediary organizations that are responsible for asset evaluation, capital verification, verification, accounting, auditing, legal services, etc., intentionally Whoever provides false certification documents and the circumstances are serious shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and shall also be fined. "--This is an explanation of the crime of "intermediary organization personnel providing false certification documents."
Paragraph 3 of Article 229 of the "Criminal Law" stipulates: "If a person specified in the first paragraph is seriously irresponsible and the certification documents issued are materially inaccurate, resulting in serious consequences, he shall be sentenced to not more than three years in prison." Fixed-term imprisonment or criminal detention, and concurrently or solely a fine" - this is a refinement of the "crime of intermediary organization personnel providing false certification documents".
This is a refinement of the "crime of major misrepresentation of certification documents issued by intermediary organization personnel."
The former is an intentional crime and the latter is a negligent crime. At the same time, the relevant judicial interpretations of the People's Court also clearly stipulated the filing standards for the above two crimes. The filing criteria for "the crime of intermediary organization personnel providing false certifications" are causing direct economic losses of more than 500,000 yuan, and "the crime of issuing certificates that are seriously untrue" The standard for filing a case is causing direct economic losses of more than 500,000 yuan. "Causing direct economic losses of more than 1 million yuan" is the standard for filing a case. The consequences of criminal punishment are quite serious. Not only will personal freedom be deprived, but the appraiser's career future will also be greatly affected.
(3) Characteristics of real estate appraiser’s practice risks
Through the analysis of the above risk types, it can be concluded that real estate appraiser’s practice risks have the following characteristics:
1. Possible within a certain period of time
This risk will only arise when the party actually suffers economic losses, and this loss is caused by misleading valuation reports. For example, during bank loan appraisal, the bank borrows more money due to the "high evaluation" of the appraisal report, and the borrower cannot repay the loan after a certain period, causing the bank to lose funds. At this time, the appraiser will be held accountable, and the risk will be happened. However, if the borrower does repay the loan in accordance with the loan contract and the performance is normal, the bank will not be held responsible and the risk will not occur. Not every problematic assessment will lead to risks. This is a contingent risk that exists for a certain period of time.
2. The responsibility is ultimately borne by the individual
From the above analysis of risk types, it can be seen that whether it is civil, administrative or even criminal, the final responsibility is always borne by the individual appraiser. The methods of liability include: recovery of economic losses, disqualification of appraisals and even criminal penalties, etc., which will affect the career prospects of appraisers. Therefore, the appraiser is the ultimate bearer of professional risks.
3. Responsibility and remuneration are extremely asymmetrical
In terms of civil compensation, due to the huge amount of real estate, the amount of compensation is generally 10,000 yuan, 100,000 yuan or even millions of yuan. Penalties and criminal penalties can deprive the appraiser of his or her professional qualifications and personal freedom. This is a far cry from what appraisers get paid for valuations.
(4) Risk prevention measures for real estate appraisers
1. Strengthen legal study and improve legal awareness
In essence, the risks of real estate appraisers’ practice That is to bear legal responsibility. Because whether you receive financial compensation, administrative penalties or criminal penalties, they are all based on corresponding laws and regulations. Many real estate appraisers are immersed in business knowledge and are familiar with valuation standards, valuation techniques, valuation parameters, etc., but they know little about legal knowledge and have difficulty grasping right and wrong, right and wrong, legal and illegal, criminal and non-criminal boundaries. As an appraiser, you must not only learn relevant civil law knowledge such as civil law, economic law, and contract law, but also understand criminal law knowledge such as criminal law and criminal procedure law.
Only by learning legal knowledge and understanding the seriousness of legal responsibilities and consequences of breaking the law can we draw the line between right and wrong in our hearts. This is a fundamental measure for appraisers to prevent professional risks.
2. Strictly abide by professional ethics and strengthen self-discipline
"Fairness, impartiality, and openness" are the basic ethical standards of real estate appraisers, and most appraisers can abide by them. However, due to different reasons such as favoritism, competition for business, administrative intervention, and seeking personal gain, there are always some appraisers who violate the above-mentioned professional ethics and make all or part of the content of the appraisal report inaccurate, harming the interests of the parties involved. At the same time, they have also planted a "ticking time bomb" for themselves and may be held accountable at any time. However, although the appraiser "often walks by the river", he must also strive to "try not to get his shoes wet." There is a degree here, so please grasp it yourself. Add the real estate appraiser website to your favorites
3. Ensure the rationality of the valuation results
After the client gets the valuation report, the first thing he pays attention to is the valuation results, because the valuation results have a great impact on the economic well-being of the parties involved. activities have a decisive impact. If the valuation result is reasonable, the appraiser will not have any possibility of bearing legal liability, and there will be no risk in practice. Therefore, improving the rationality of valuation results is the core measure to prevent practice risks.
How to ensure the rationality of the valuation results? There are many methods, such as standardized operations, internal three-level review, accurate selection of cases and parameters, etc. The most fundamental point is to correctly grasp the market and conduct valuations based on market information. Under market economy conditions, most assessments must give market prices. The cases used in the valuation report must be real cases in the market and cannot be fabricated out of thin air; the determination of parameters must be based on market conditions and try to avoid subjective assumptions; the valuation results must be close to the market conditions and cannot deviate too much. To do this, appraisers need to collect and organize market information and apply it in appraisal practice. In a sense, the real reviewer of each appraisal report is not the chief appraiser or general manager of the unit, but the market. The assessment results must withstand the test of the market, which is a substantive measure to prevent risks.
4. Improve the quality of the entrusted valuation business and clearly stipulate the responsibilities and obligations of both parties in the contract
Some risks are caused by unclear responsibilities of the entrusting party and the appraiser. For example, 4.0.2 of the Real Estate Valuation Specifications stipulates that "the purpose of valuation shall be proposed by the entrusting party" and must be written into the entrustment contract and approved by the entrusting party. This must be stated in the entrustment contract and recognized by the entrusting party, because the valuation results obtained for different valuation purposes may be quite different. For example, for the same residential property, the appraisal result for the purpose of transfer may include the decoration value of the property, but the appraisal result for the purpose of mortgage does not include the decoration value, or even out of caution, the appraisal result is only the mortgage value. If an appraisal report for transfer purposes is used for mortgage purposes, the value will be overestimated. If there is no agreement in the entrustment contract or the agreement is unclear, when the actual use of the appraisal report is inconsistent with the stated purpose of the appraisal report, the appraiser may be "reasonably suspected" of deliberately providing an inaccurate appraisal report due to "uncertainty". The appraiser cannot "tell the truth" and is at risk of being "reasonably suspected" of knowingly providing an inaccurate appraisal report. An effective way to prevent this risk is to improve the quality of the valuation entrustment contract and clearly stipulate the responsibilities and obligations of both parties. The valuation contract is one of the basis for valuation. It clarifies the rights and obligations of the entrusting party and the appraiser, as well as the corresponding responsibilities. The responsibilities that the entrusting party must bear must be written into the entrustment contract.
5. Reasonably use the "assumptions and restrictions" in the valuation report
In practice, the "assumptions and restrictions" in the valuation report make certain matters difficult to determine. It makes necessary assumptions and at the same time limits the application conditions of the valuation results, which indeed plays a role in protecting the valuer. However, it must be noted that "assumptions and restrictions" cannot be abused and must be based on legal compliance. For example, the legal use of the ground floor property facing the street is residential, but the actual use is a shop (but there is no legality certificate).
The market price for residential use is 5,000 yuan/square meter. In order to obtain more loans from the bank, the party requested the appraiser to issue an appraisal report and requested that the property be appraised for commercial use at 10,000 yuan/square meter. At this time, the appraiser must evaluate the price for residential use in accordance with the standards and the principle of legality, and must not issue an appraisal report based on the "assumptions and restrictions" that the use is commercial pavement use as required by the client. Doing so violates the principle of legality and may easily lead to risks. Evaluators must not abuse assumptions and qualifications.
6. Strengthen communication and cooperation among peers
Different appraisers have different appraisal expertise. Some appraisers are good at residential valuation, some are good at commercial real estate valuation, and some are good at commercial real estate valuation. is good at land valuation. The same goes for assessment agencies. Through mutual cooperation among peers, we can learn from each other's strengths, learn from each other, share information, explore and research some difficult or new assessment businesses, and share risks while making high-quality assessment reports. For example, due to changes in the design plan of a residential community in our city, the owners of the community believed that the value of their houses was affected, and the values ??of some houses changed, and they had disputes with the developers. The developer commissions an appraisal agency to assess the impact on value. This is a relatively new assessment project. The author's agency cooperated closely with four other appraisal agencies. During the appraisal, multiple appraisers gave full play to their respective strengths and cooperated closely to complete the appraisal work within the specified time, which was recognized by the parties involved and the dispute was successfully resolved.
Conclusion
The above are some of the author’s views on practice risks and prevention from the perspective of a real estate appraiser. However, the prevention of practice risks is a systematic project that requires individual appraisers, valuation agencies, industry associations, and government departments to work together to establish a complete risk prevention system and create a safe practice environment for appraisers to practice. . I hope this article can serve as a starting point and attract more peers to pay attention to and study the risks and prevention of real estate appraisers’ practice.