Real estate appraisers.

Existing law, the Real Estate Appraisers' Licensing and Certification Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of real estate appraisers and vests the duty of enforcing and administering that law in the Office of Real Estate Appraisers. Fees and assessments collected under these provisions are deposited into the Real Estate Appraisers Regulation Fund, and 5% of the amount of any license or certificate fee collected is credited to the Recovery Account in that fund, which account is continuously appropriated. Existing law subjects applicants for real estate appraisers licenses to fingerprinting and criminal background checks. This bill would require appraisal management companies, as defined, to register with the Office of Real Estate Appraisers, and would subject those entities to the provisions of the Real Estate Appraisers' Licensing and Certification Law. The bill would require the office to adopt regulations governing the implementation of the registration process, with specified minimum requirements, and establish the fees to be imposed for registration in an amount sufficient to cover the costs incurred by the office in administering the registration. Because 5% of those fees would be credited to the Recovery Account, a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would also require fingerprinting and background checks by the Department of Justice of each controlling person of an applicant for registration, as defined, and would require the department to charge all applicants for licensure or registration specified fees for those services. The bill would also set forth standards with which an appraisal management company would need to comply, and would provide to the office specified investigative and enforcement authority, including the authority to issue citations or administrative penalties for a violation thereof, to be deposited into the Real Estate Appraisers Regulation Fund. The bill would make conforming changes within other provisions of the Real Estate Appraisers' Licensing and Certification Law to incorporate the changes made by the bill. This bill would make any provision under the Real Estate Appraisers' Licensing and Certification Law that relates to appraisal management companies inoperative 60 days after the effective date of any federal law that mandates the registration or licensing of appraisal management companies with an entity other than the state regulatory authority with jurisdiction over appraisers. Existing law prohibits a person with an interest in a real estate transaction involving an appraisal to improperly influence or attempt to improperly influence, through coercion, extortion, or bribery, the development, reporting, result, or review of a real estate appraisal sought in connection with a mortgage loan, and specifies that a violation of this provision by a person licensed under a state licensing law also constitutes a violation of that law. This bill would enumerate specified prohibited acts under that provision, including, but not limited to, withholding or threatening to withhold timely payment for an appraisal, or requesting the payment of compensation to achieve higher priority in the assignment of appraisal business.