ComplaintsforACT Appraisal, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  08/16/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I had an appraisal done on a property I was under contract for in 6/22. The appraisal didnt come back until long after the promise dare but my major issue is the appraisal I actually received wasnt of the house I was under contract for. For example my phone was a 3 bedroom 2 bath home but the appraisal report I received was for a 4bd rm 3 bath home. Also I was charged to have a 2nd appraisal done but I know for a fact no one ever cane and did a 2nd appraisal after repairs were supposedly done because it was the day before closing and I was informed the re-appraisal was done over the phone. I was charged over $600 for the first appraisal and I believe the 2nd was done for over $200 even thiugh the report I received wasnt even of the correct home.

  Business response

  08/19/2022

  On the attachment to this complaint, it clearly states the Appraisal ****************** was "Integrity Appraisal Management LLC".  We are ACT Appraisal, Inc.  We did not perform this appraisal and we took no payment.  ACT has no record of performing appraisal services on this property.  

  Customer response

  08/20/2022

   
  Complaint: 17721735
  
  I am rejecting this response because: The name of the company may be different but the address is the exact same 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

• Initial Complaint

  03/28/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Last December I was under a home purchase contract. I ordered a rush service from ACT Appraisal *** to get the appraisal of the house. I paid $760 to be able to get the report in 4-7 days. I got the final report almost a month later. The comments of the appraiser such as "the house has illegal additions" and that the " market where the house is located has seen a declined" were completely wrong. The report almost made me lose the transaction. My mortgage broker promised I was going to have a refund of the appraisal. I never happened. I contacted my credit card to dispute the charge. But this dishonest company kept pushing to deny my claim. They are wrong. They should return my money. It is unheard of an appraiser to take a month to provide a "rush serviced appraisal". And the content of the report is embarrassing. I am 100% sure that this appraiser never went to the property. I would like to receive photos taken by the appraiser during his visit. I am very doubtful about his visit, because the listing agent changed the lockbox combination, and never told me that. How did the appraiser went into the house? How did he measure the house? Unprofessional and deceiving service!I have documents, pictures, and receipts to proof this claim. Such documents will be provided upon request.

  Business response

  03/28/2022

  Refund is being issued today.  Please allow several days to post on your account. 

• Initial Complaint

  03/04/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Our lender used them to run an appraisal report for us. They actually subcontracted this job to a very small appraisal company in our state with only 2-3 employees including the owner. Yet they charged us $800+ for running the report. The appraiser used the comparable that is not in the same condition as our house and appraised our house at least $30k under the fair market value. The comparable that they used were on market for over three weeks and sold at a reduced price from the listing price, yet our house was in market for only one day with multiple offers, which indicates the variances in conditions and demand. Besides, the pictures used in this report are outdated. The upgrade of our house is ignored. We provided strong numbers and reasons (line by line) as evidence to dispute this report. We even provided recommended comparable house located just less than 2 miles away from ours and we provided strong evidence showing the comparability in size, proximity, days on market, year built, sale price, sale date, condition, living area and floor plan. and they came back with three lines noting that our recommended comparable houses are not in the same community with an extra charge of $325, nothing else in the original appraisal report got changed, meaning that the appraiser didn't even read our evidence and do more research before jumping to a conclusion. The quality of work can't just be justified with a fee of more than $800 dollars.And this report has also severely impacted our progress of closing this house and forced us look for a new appraisal to do the job that can't be fulfilled by ACT Appraisal ****

  Business response

  03/09/2022

  Mr. Peilong Du, 
  
  I am sorry to hear you are not satisfied with the appraisal that was done on your prospective purchase.  
  
  The charges incurred for this transaction were a total of $600, not $800 as stated in your complaint.  I have attached a copy of the invoice for your reference.  
  
  The appraiser who performed the service is licensed by the **************** as a "State Licensed Real Property Appraiser".  A copy of his license is attached.  Appraisers are required to be compliant with USPAP, ****** *** and ******* Mac guidelines, and all lender Client Specific Underwriting Guidelines.  They are also required to be geographically competent for the assignment as accepted. The appraiser is also required to take continuing education every 2 years as required by the state of Georgia.  This appraiser has 18 years of experience. 
  
  The condition of your property was taken into consideration and all comparables used were in like condition.  C3 definition attached.  
  
  The comparables you supplied on your appeal were definitely looked at by the appraiser and his response, on page 12 of the appraisal, is attached.  
  All the comparables that were used were within a 1/4 mile of the subject property and per USPAP and lender guidelines, comps outside of one mile cannot be used if there are comps that are closer.  
  
  There is a process in place to order a 2nd appraisal, to be in compliance with USPAP, ****** **** ******* Mac, and the ******************* law.  If your broker, *********** LLC, submits the appraisal to the lender, Union Home Mortgage, their collateral risk unit can take a look at it. If they deem the appraisal materially defective, we will do a new appraisal free of charge, with a different appraiser.  
  
  I hope this answers some of the concerns you had. Thank you.  

   

  *****************

  *********************************

  *******************

  Customer response

  03/09/2022

   
  Complaint: 16844780
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

   

  Hi, 
  Thank you for getting back to us with details. 
  
  First,the cost is $600 + $325 = $925 (for the 2nd appraisal since we disputed the first appraisal). Please see attached for a screenshot. We were supposed to pay the extra cost, but we were just able to reject paying the $325 because we are not satisfied with the second appraisal from the same appraiser with an additional three lines in explanation. 
  
  Second,according to ****** ***** selling guidelines, "****** *** does allow for the use of comparable sales that are located in competing neighborhoods, as these may simply be the best comparables available and the most appropriate for the appraisers analysis." Therefore, it's not valid to state that "All the comparables that were used were within a 1/4 mile of the subject property and per USPAP and lender guidelines, comps outside of one mile cannot be used if there are comps that are closer."
  
  In addition, according to ****** ***, "comparable sales should have similar physical and legal characteristics when compared to the subject property. These characteristics include, but are not limited to, site, room count, gross living area, style, and condition." As I mentioned in my dispute letter in my previous email, I have pointed out why the comparable sales chosen by the appraiser were not the best for comparison based on size, floor plan (room count), living area and condition. Please see below for more details. I've also provided a table capturing a quantitative comparison of the comparables used in the appraisal report with our house. Please see the attached screenshot - ACT Appraisal Comparables. 

  
  Lastly,the three lines from the appraiser's 2nd appraisal just mentioned that my three recommended houses are not in the same neighborhood. He DID NOT further prove that the comparable houses we provided in the like condition, as you stated in your email "the condition of your property was taken into consideration and all comparables used were in like condition.  C3 definition attached."

   

  For the transaction with ACT **** we would like to get a refund of $600. The back and forth regarding this appraisal report from you company has already delayed our process in closing our house. We've already given your company a second chance by having the same appraiser conduct a second appraisal, which didn't come back with a satisfactory result with convincing evidence. So we have moved forward with a new company for a second appraisal, which we have received an appraised value of $505k for our house and it's higher than our sales price - $501,500. 

  
  -----------------------------------
  
  The three houses that were used in the appraisal report are:
  
  House 1: ****************************************************************** 30092
  House 2: *************************************************************************** 30092
  House 3: ******************************************************************* 30092
  House 4: ******************************************************************* 30092

  
  Livable Size:
  For House 1, we were able to contact the selling agent for this house and get more information. First, the price of the house got lowered from $490k to $460k because the buyer must take VA loan, which is stricter than a conventional loan. In addition, the appraisal for the VA loan didnt include basement as a livable space. Therefore, the final sale price of this house did not reflect the basement other than the livable space above the ground.
  
  Overall, the three houses (House 2, House 3 and House 4) used for appraisal are not comparable. Because the livable size of the houses is statistically significantly smaller than ours by at least 21%+. Please see the table below for more details.
  
  
  Floor Plan &Upgrade:
  The floor plan for ********************************* is 3b6b, which is not desirable.However, ours is 4b4b and each bedroom has its own bathroom, which is a more desirable floor plan.
  
  ************************* is 3b3b, however, the basement is unfinished. In comparison,the owner of the house we intended to buy disclosed to us that they spent nearly $50k on renovating the basement. This upgrade provides additional value to this house.
  
  Condition:
  **** ********** must have some underlying issues because it was initially listed as $435,900 by Zillow in November 2021 but was not sold until Feb 2022 at a reduced price. Additionally, it was priced at $426,492 purchased by Zillow. However, the one that we intended to buy has multiple offers on the table and our offer got accepted within 3 days of being listed for sale, which indicates that this house is in a better condition.
  
  

  
  Sincerely,
  
  Peilong Du
  
  

  Business response

  03/14/2022

  The refund will be processed today.  Please allow several days to hit the credit card company. 

  Customer response

  03/18/2022

   
  Complaint: 16844780
  
  Thank you so much! But I still havent received the refund yet and I dont want this case to be closed until I receive the refund. Could you please provide a proof of refund? 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Peilong Du

• Initial Complaint

  02/22/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  ACT Appraisals was contracted by ********* Mortgage to handle valuing my house. They first charged my credit card an additional $120 without prior authorization. They then contracted an appraiser (******* Appraisal in **********, **) who failed to use the most recent sale (a private sale, identical townhome, next door), despite the sale information being publicly available on the County Tax information website. The square footage was different on 4 identical townhomes according to their report. ACT Appraisal received and validated. This, of course, delayed my closing a week, and resulted in underappraisal. The seller disputed and provided information due to the excluded most recent comp. On 2/17, I received and reviewed the updated appraisal,, and informed my agent and lender to move forward and reschedule closing, which was more than a week later than the original due to appointment availability of the ************* We are scheduled to close tomorrow at 4pm, 2/23. Tonight, I received a call that ACT is now saying that I did not open the Appraisal I received via email, and cannot close until Friday, 2/25. Having already taken two partial days off work, extended my lease, and had to pay for the Appraisal shortage, this company's repeated failures have cost me approximately $2,400, not including the lost time at work. This additional delay will cost additional time off work, and further extended rent. My loan agent is not able to reach them by phone, and they are not responding to email.

  Business response

  03/09/2022

  ******************, 
  
  I am sorry you feel  you had a bad experience on the purchase of your new home. 
  We received the appraisal order via *** Mortgage, Inc.,as submitted to them by ********* Mortgage Corporation.  
  
  The appraiser who performed the service is a certified appraiser for the State of Virginia, in business for 16 years.  Appraisers in the state of Virginia are compliant with USPAP, ****** *** and ******* Mac guidelines, and all Client Specific Underwriting Guidelines. They are also geographically competent for the assignment as accepted.  The appraiser also takes continuing education every 2 years as required by the State of Virginia.  
  
  The $120 fee was charged to your card, then reversed, then re-charged upon approval from ***************************** at *********.  A copy of the invoice is attached. 
  
  Upon appeal, there was an issue with the 16 Abbey ** property as USPAP requires 2 sources of data.  Once that was cleared up,the property was added to the report as comp number 1 and the value went up to $358,000 which was $2,000 short of the purchase price.  Sometimes borrowers use appraisals as a negotiation tool to have the seller lower the purchase price.  I'm not sure if you took advantage of that or not. 
  
  The requirement for you to open the appraisal email is a lender requirement from ***, we simply send the email as a courtesy.  It is *********** responsibility to advise you to open the email.  
  
  Lastly, we communicated dozens of times with ********* through the *** portal which is the only way *** allows us to send messages to *********.  We have no control of what they see on their side of the portal.     
  
  I hope this explains some of the issues on the processing of the order.  Thank you

  Customer response

  03/11/2022

   
  There was no reasonable effort on the part of the appraiser to obtain that information. It seems everyone just points a finger at everyone else, while I take all the hits. 
  

  
  

  Complaint: 16797153
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***************************

  Business response

  03/18/2022

  Order fee has been refunded.  Please allow a couple days for processing. 

  Customer response

  03/25/2022

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***************************

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩