Opinion ID: 1931243
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Prior Sales

Text: Morgan appeals the Circuit Court's holding that the Division had substantial evidence to find him in violation of the statute for misrepresenting prior sales histories. The Division charged Morgan with failing to note in his appraisals when a property had been transferred within twelve months before the proposed sale. The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice requires that appraisers list all prior sales that occurred within the year. Advisory Opinion AO-1, supra. The Uniform Residential Appraisal Report form asks for prior sales of the subject property and comparable properties. The ALJ found that in all thirty-two of the subject appraisals Morgan conducted, he reported that there had been no prior sale. In actuality, thirty of the properties had been sold within the previous twelve months. Administrative Law Judge Spencer rejected Morgan's argument that the discrepancies were caused by a delay between the recording of the deed and the deed reporting service making the information available to appraisers. She based her finding that Morgan's argument was incredible on a number of facts: (1) Morgan listed Shpritz or one of his companies as the deed owner of record on the appraisals, evidence that he was aware of the prior sale transferring the property to Shpritz; (2) for at least five properties, the prior sale was at least seven months prior to the appraisal, ample time for it to be posted by the reporting service; [32] and (3) Morgan testified that he reported that there were no transfers at the suggestion of an American Skycorp employee, even when Morgan was aware of discrepancies between the owner listed on a property's deed and the seller listed on the sales contract. Finally, the ALJ rejected Morgan's argument that consumers did not rely on his appraisals because they did not review the appraisals themselves. She found that Morgan believed that the consumers would have access to his appraisals and that Morgan's failure to report the prior sales would tend to deceive a reviewer of the appraisals. We hold that the Division had substantial evidence to find that Morgan had violated ง 13-301(1) and (3) based on his failure to report the prior sales histories in his appraisals.