Who Needs USPAP When You Have the Texas Supreme Court

This paper addresses the sharp differences in Texas between fair market value appraising, the process and reporting standards for which are squarely set out in the Uniform Standards of Appraisal Practice (USPAP), and condemnation appraising, particularly in partial taking acquisitions, the increasingly obtuse rules for which have been defined and redefined in recent years by the Texas Supreme Court. The paper’s thesis is that the safeguards USPAP attempts to establish so that appraisers in Texas and elsewhere will fully, fairly and uniformly consider all appropriate appraisal techniques, methodologies and relevant data in developing fair market value appraisals that realistically reflect the market value of the property being appraised are frustrated to a significant extent by certain, most recent, Supreme Court rulings that prevent a full and straightforward application of the fair market value standard.

 

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