How to dispute a low appraisal?

Question

I sent a request to terminate the PMI and paid extra principle. I have to pay the mortgage company to do an appraisal. The appraisal came with a big mistake, which calculated my condo price according to Co-op properties. There is about 30% difference!!!

I tried to dispute with the mortgage company but they said they trust the appraiser. They only forwarded my opinion to the appraisal and unfortunately the appraisal won't correct that error, no matter how stupid it is. (They did do some correction - changed the term "co-op" to "condo" on the original appraisal but didn't change the value at all)

Now I have to pay PMI every month as before....What can I do? To sue the mortgage company?

Answer 1

Expert Realtor, I am in the business and I have heard, and experienced lenders wanting a new appraisal to drop PMI.  

To the poster, you got screwed.  Not much you can do.  You can see if they will except another appraisal but it is up to the lender.  

I would check into a re fi.  Find a bank that will do a new appraisal and not charge you PMI.   You have to realize that in many areas properties values have dropped.  Even with paying extra in you may not have the LTV ratio that you will need to avoid PMI.

Answer 2

get a different apprasial company to come look at it.

Answer 3

They ripped you off by paying for an appraisal to start with.

No bank requires you to get a new appraisal to drop PMI b/c the ORIGINAL appraisal when you first purchased the property, against, what you have PAID DOWN is the determination for PMI being dropped, for the 80% DTI.

Everyone that works in the industry knows that.

They owe you the money for the appraisal, at best.

PMI is very, very difficult to get dropped once you start paying it.  

Answer 4

Where did you get the idea there was a 30% difference?   I have never heard anything like that.

But that said, other then paying their appraiser to go appraise it again there isn't anything you can do.   They will not accept an appraisal from an outside source.

If you have records of recent sales that are 30% more then your place you can try offering that information to the appraiser.    He should have it, but maybe he just missed a closing.

Answer 5

What do the comp's show?  An appraisal is an oppinion.  You can ask 4 appraisers to go out on the same day, and you'll come back with 4 values.  They will be close, but probably differant.  It's up to the bank to remove your PMI, if they accept the value from the appraiser, then your stuck.  PMI is in protection for the bank, not the borrower.  In this downward market, not many banks are removing the requirement for PMI.

Answer 6

You can't sue anyone.  It is up to the discretion of the lender involved to determine the market value of your property, relative to your :LTV ratio.

You have NO legal standing here.  Read your mortgage documents.  The appraiser is chosen by the mortgage lender.  If you don't like what the appraiser comes up with, you simply have to live with it.

There are no "mistakes' in appraisals, since appraisals are simply the best educated estimate of the appraiser involved.