The Arizona AMC Bill Passed in the House (44-12 vote) on 4/29/10, at 7:25pm (in the 11th hour). The second regular session of the 49th Arizona Legislature adjourned sine die shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday, April 29th, the 109th day of the session. SB 1351, Appraisal Management Regulation was the last bill to be read in the House.and it passed.

Our AMC Bill passed without our amendment due to time constraints and other unforeseen issues at the legislature in the past few weeks. The bill was held up, not because of opposition, but because of other significant legislation in the House that was consuming the time of the legislators. We had to make a tough decision in the 11^th hour and that decision was to move forward with our bill as-is since time did not allow for the Amendment re-write and Senate confirmation process.

Arizona now has AMC legislation in place and that is a start to improving the appraisal profession in our state! We feel confident that some of your concerns about possible weaknesses in the bill will be addressed through the Rules process and those that are not will be addressed in an Amendment this fall. During the Rules process we will investigate other recent states laws and rules and look at modifications, if any, that the AZ AMC law will require. CoAA's legislative team is ready for the next step, and that is to help in the writing of Rules and in discovery. We understand that Utah and California are going back for modifications, and Nevada and New Mexico have been successful in passing AMC Amendment Bills. As with any new legislation, modifications will need to be made as they are discovered. Any CoAA members that want to be a part of the Rules committee or future legislative processes are encouraged to come to the next CoAA board meeting on 5/11/10 (see website for details), and/or write us at: info@azcoaa.us.

So, where are we? The AMC bill will go to the governor for signing. The Governor has ten days after adjournment and excluding Sundays to act on bills. The report on final disposition of bills will follow, with a minimum of 90-days allowed for Rules making prior to the bill becoming effective.

What's next? CoAA plans on amending the AMC Bill, as needed, in the next legislative session and with that will incorporate any appraisal law changes that need to be made. Since the AMC regulation is under the Appraisal Law Statute, these items can be addressed together. CoAA will be working with the new AZ Board Executive Director and the Appraisal Board to help create positive change in the very near future.

Thanks to all of the CoAA team players that made this happen! We have come a long way in a short time and we should be proud of our accomplishments thus far. We still have a lot of work to do and are looking for volunteers! Join CoAA come one of our team and be a part of the solution to improve the appraisal profession!

Sue S. Miller
President, CoAA

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CONGRATULATIONS CoAA Team!

The Coalition of Arizona Appraisers AMC Bill was passed in the Senate Commerce Committee hearing 2/23/10.

Good job Legislative Committee! And a SPECIAL THANKS to all of you for writing the Senate Commerce Committee members to ask for their support of our bill !!!

Next the AZ AMC Bill will be reviewed by the Rules Committee, then discussed in both the Republican and Democratic Senate caucuses. After that, it will be presented to the full Senate in what is called Committee of the Whole (COW), where the amendments approved by the Commerce Committee are adopted. Then the Senate takes a formal vote on the bill as amended.

After that, if all goes well, the AMC Bill with go off to the House where the process is repeated.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE BILL AND TRACK ITS PROGRESS:

http://www.azleg.gov/DocumentsForBill.asp?Bill_Number=sb1351

Also…..The Arizona Mortgage Brokers Association supported our Bill!

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Greetings Everyone,

On Tuesday, 2/16/10, CoAA met at the Senate regarding our AMC Bill (SB 1351) but we were disappointed to hear that the Senate Commerce Committee decided to table our bill from being heard. They requested that we meet with the Stakeholders to work out our differences. The Stakeholders consisted of RELS (Tim O’Brian), Quantrix (Wes McDaniel), and AZ Bankers Association Lobbyist (Stacy Lang.) Our team consisted of CoAA’s Government Relations Committee (Jay Delich, Ann Susko and Peter Martori), President of CoAA (Sue Miller), AI Lobbyist (Elaine Arena) and CoAA’s lobbyist (Jack LaSota.)

We received a letter of concern from LPS (a Parent Company of LSI) last Friday, and had a conference call with RELs, LPS & Quantrix last Thursday as well, where they spelled out their items of concern (oppositions). They had been the only opposition thus far, but at the Senate Meeting the AZ Bankers Association showed up on their side, which should be a given since the big banks own both the AMCs and AZ Bankers Association.

Jay, Ann and I worked on our response and amendment to the stakeholders opposition on Saturday, and Jay got our responses to our lobbyist on Sunday to be reviewed and filed. But, since Monday was a holiday the amendments did not get entered in time for the hearing today. With that, the Senate Chair asked that both sides sit down to try to come to an agreement.

The Stakeholders and CoAA’s team spent over 2 hours going through the items of opposition and came to agreement on nearly all items. We made several concessions that were non-consequential to the appraiser, i.e., verbiage corrections and allowing the AMC to have an appeal process on their complaints. We are still dealing with several other items however, including the definition of an AMC vs Appraiser, and how we can exclude large appraisal shops from registering as AMCs, yet make sure Appraiser owned AMCs are included in the registration requirement process. They also requested a 30-day period to pay Or “Per Agreement” which we would not accept. We settled on our terms for the appraiser to be paid within 45-days. We are working on language for a class requirement for AMC employees too, which will be different for those ordering appraisals versus those reviewing appraisals. We will do our best to hold our ground and get a solid bill passed.

We are going to work on some tactical moves too, to get the Mtg Lenders Association and Realtors on board with us. They have not yet made a position on the bill.

Our goal is to have an acceptable bill prepared by the end of this week. We are hoping the Senate Commerce Committee will approve our bill next week for it to move forward. We will keep you posted through this process.

We are pressing forward! We are positive! We thank everyone for writing the Senators in support of our bill!

Please contact us with any questions, concerns or suggestions.

information@azcoaa.us

Thank you again for your support!

Sue S. Miller

President, CoAA