The recently enacted and much-maligned federal Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), designed to enhance the independence and accuracy of the appraisal process, may soon fall by the wayside and be replaced, according to an executive with Washington, D.C.-based The Appraisal Foundation.

David Bunton, president of The Appraisal Foundation, told the Massachusetts Board of Real Estate Appraisers last night he believed the HVCC was merely a "placeholder," run by two organizations in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that have neither the money nor the interest to administer the new rules.

Noting the fact that the new code was essentially the brainchild of New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and not a federal authority, Bunton said the industry was currently in a time of transition.

By next spring, Bunton said, he expected the industry to have a clearer set of "buoys to follow" in terms of maximum and minimum penalties for a variety of appraisal violations. The current system of state appraisal regulation leaves a lot to be desired in terms of uniformity, but new national guidelines designed to supplant the HVCC could help bring some consistency. Currently, according to Bunton, states are all enforcing the same code, but disciplinary actions are all over the place.

"We’re never going to get uniformity (in regulations and disciplinary actions) with 55 state appraisal boards," Bunton said. "But we ought to be able to get much more consistency."

Bunton gave his remarks at the MBREA’s 75th anniversary dinner and hall of fame induction. A dozen notable contributors to the appraisal profession in Massachusetts were honored at the reception, including Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, Banker & Tradesman’s parent company.

Warren was the only non-appraiser to be inducted into the hall of fame.

Others inducted included: Charles Akerson, Leon Boudreau, Abigail Burns, Steven Byrnes, Richard Dennis, John Hewitt, Paul Kinsella, John Quincy, Richard Simmons, William Stewart and Anthony Trodella.