Last month—after “careful consideration” and review of all stakeholder comments and opinions—the Appraisal Standards Board adopted changes to the Uniform Standards for Professional Appraisal Practice for the 2014-15 edition. Just recently, the ASB followed up with a Summary of Actions related to the proposed changes and providing the rationale for its ultimate conclusions.

For example, the board decided to adopt the proposed revisions related to the definition of “assignment results.” The adopted edits “clarify that assignment results include opinions or conclusions” and are not “specifically limited to the value conclusion in an appraisal assignment, or to the final opinion of the quality of another appraiser’s work in an appraisal review assignment,” the summary explains.

Similarly, the board adopted changes to the “scope of work” definition. Whereas “the SCOPE OF WORK RULE only applies to appraisal and appraisal review assignments,” the summary says, with emphasis, “the term scope of work is broadly defined to include all assignments performed under appraisal practice.”

Importantly, the board decided not to adopt any changes to the definition of “report,” pending further investigation and review. As the summary explains, with an implicit nod to business appraisers and the comments by their professional groups, including the ASA:

As a result of the concerns expressed with both the current and the proposed definitions of report, and the fact that these concerns are largely a function of the appraiser’s type of practice, the ASB has decided to investigate the possibility of having different report and workfile requirements based on the intended use and intended users of the assignment. The Board recognizes that this would be a radical change to USPAP and would affect many stakeholders. For that reason, such a change must be thoroughly investigated and vetted. Rather than rush to adopt changes for the 2014-15 edition, the ASB plans to follow-up on this issue after 2014-15 USPAP has been published. This will allow the Board to proceed judiciously and allow for the necessary level of consideration and deliberation on this important topic.

In the meantime, the board has also released an exposure draft of proposed changes to Advisory Order 21 related to its “retirement” of Standards 4 and 5 in the forthcoming USPAP, and also its explanation and opinion, complete with revised illustrative examples, of when USPAP applies to an appraiser’s practice. Comments are due March 25, 2013.