Realty Check

Published: Thursday, 22 Oct 2009 | 11:08 AM ET

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Since most of you who don't live and breathe the gastro-intestinal system that is Congressional legislation, I wanted to flag a major move on the always controversial Home Valuation Code of Conduct.

For those four of you who've never heard of the HVCC (because you've either been in a coma or trapped under something heavy), these are the new appraisal rules generated by the New York State Attorney General in conjunction with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The rules are designed to put a firewall between appraisers and mortgage brokers/lenders, but have resulted in a massive slowdown and widespread complaints in the appraisal process nationwide.

The House Financial Services Committee has just passed an amendment to the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act to sunset the HVCC.

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This amendment was offered by Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) who introduced legislation earlier this year for an 18 month moratorium on the HVCC, along with 112 cosponsors. Miller wants regulators to come up with one set of standards to oversee the industry.

“While I am supportive of ensuring accurate appraisals, I have repeatedly expressed concern that the HVCC has potential to increase costs to consumers, significantly hinder a consumer’s ability to obtain legitimate and reliable appraisals, and adversely impact small business professionals who work in the very neighborhoods where these consumers are looking to purchase homes,” said Congressman Miller. “In fact, since the implementation of the HVCC on May 1, there are numerous examples of higher costs for appraisals, poor service, the inability to use one appraisal for more than one lender, questionable quality of appraisals, and the inability to make corrections to inaccurate information on an appraisal report.”

Now before all you realtors and mortgage brokers get all excited, remember this is just a committee vote. I will say it was passed by voice vote, so that means there were no objections. The bill will be voted out of committee later today and then have to go to the House floor in some form and then of course there's the Senate, etc.

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