Hi-

I did a bpo exterior a few weeks ago and I have no other issues with this bpo company but received an email with a court declaration attached for me to sign, prepared by an attorney for a BK case and the bpo co. asking me to sign and return it to them.

The doc states I did the bpo on this date, this value,etc asks for my years in biz, license #, that I agree to come to court and it's pretty basic 2 page court doc.

I think the fee is the standard $50 exterior w/ company.

Here are my thoughts and would love input from others that have had similar requests and how you handled it.

When I make a regular sale/listing commission and thousands of dollars for a transaction I am extremely diligent and never touch a paper without considering not just what it means to a client/ transaction/etc. but to myself and the office I work in. I'm always prepared to walk away from something that isn't right or even if it's right and I don't like open liability, etc. to myself. At the end of the day- I sleep like a baby.

I have an issue being expected to sign an attorney requested court document especially since I would have to have MY attorney look at it and pay him..?????

I said I wasn't willing to sign anything and I might have shot myself in the foot with the company, I hope not. I'm disappointed and feel that if they require that type of involvement in a bpo, that should be a special type of arrangement that we can opt in or out of up front. The bpo co. might not have known up front but I was surprised at the request.

I am in the process of getting my brokers license so I can handle the bpo part of my biz through that. My broker is awesome and it's a great office but she isn't the least bit interested in bpo's because she's worried about the liability.
If I showed her the doc ( I wouldn't sign anything that was part of a lawsuit of any kind without running it by the managing broker) she'd pull the plug on the bpo's.

I guess I'm ranting a little here but would love the input of the forum and their thoughts on this and if they have encountered this, what they did or didn't do.

Thanks guys!

I've had a couple calls directly from the BK office asking me to sign. I ignored both and never heard back. There are a couple threads on this board with more details although I dont think they were approached directly from the bpo company.

I signed a declaration for a lender to use one of my BPOs to ask for relief from stay in a BK case. Some corrections were made to the declaration before I signed it. It is unlikely that you will be called as a witness to appear in BK court.

Thanks for the replies!

I think it's a draw the line in the sand issue for me on this.

Living in "SueMeCalifornia" I think the report itself is enough liability for me.

Thank you again for replying- I got the email this am and was rattled. I like the bpo co. and turning down signing the docs might hurt me with them , I'll just hope it doesn't and keep going.

Thanks again!

From a BPO company side.

I have not yet nor ever seen an agent deactivated for not wanting to go to court for a BPO. We have had clients that asked for it and we always posed the question to the agent to see if they were willing (This is at BB not MSV btw) But we never held it against an agent that said no.

J~

MSJV- SO glad to hear that. I just about croaked when I got the email- THANK YOU!!!!

I received one last month. I did a bpo for RRReview. The agent called me an just said sign. I had read the Declaration. I was the only party on doc. Additionally, it stated that I would be willing to appear in court. I told the agent that I was not willing to sign the declaration.

The next day I called the office in the U.S. and was informed that I was fired because I did not sign. The agent in the U.S. gave the impression it was only a document claiming my work was correct. That is not true. It was a declaration to remove a stay.

These are my thoughts:

-I was being used as an easy inexpensive tool for the lender/bpo co. What reputable lender would go to court and request removal of a stay for bk with a $40- bpo?

-If I went to court parking is $20 1/2 of what I made on the bpo

-I had no legal representation and no way would I retain an attorney to review or debate the declaration.

-If just if this became a lawsuit that would affect my broker's EO. I can assure you that the bpo company would not have any involvement.

- I have read other post and it looks like agents in California are getting these request. I maybe wrong.

-Finally, I lost business with RRReview but if I have to risk being pulled into any type of litigation it is OK.

You're under no obligation to sign or even acknowledge the request. In the event they need you in court they can issue a supoena. They're looking for an easy way to gain your cooperation. If the BPO company decides to cut you out, so be it. If that's they're position, I doubt I'd want to remain on their list. Regarding charging them for a court appearance; The supoena covers that, about $20.00 per day. Regarding RRReview; I dropped them 5 years ago when the laid off many of their American workers and shifted the work to India.

Thanks for the input. After a couple of vm and emails the bpo co. said they would tell the atty I wasn't going to sign it end of story. I agree with Jackreo, if I get cut out by a bpo co. for that , it's not what I want but so be it. Probably in the future, I'd just email back and say "in regard to your email request for client on order xxx , I don't sign or get involved in those" and go on to business at hand. This was a first so it was a little troubling. Thanks again!

RE: JackREO and India- the rest of the country might be a little late but I think that is going to be the trend across America. A little late but "cheaper" wasn't cheaper for USA. I also believe people are going to be buying more "local" in their local community .

I have had a few of those letters sent to me too, I spoke to my BPO company, they said, you can sign it or ignore, it really dosen't matter to them, so I chose not to sign because I didn't feel like it.

One time in 18 years, ignored them and it went away.

I've signed several - ain't no big thing - I stand by my work.

I stand by my work as well. I also stand by an agreement for a work order and my involvement. If it is disclosed up front, you'll be involved in a court action, asked to sign court documents and agree to be available and come to court if requested, there is no way in heck I'm available for that nor will I be. That was the first request of me like that and I think receiving it was a big surprise but after talking with the bpo co. and others on the board, I don't feel that the request in the future equals a committment on my part to participate and I'm more comfortable with it all now. Just because an attorney wants it doesn't translate into me having to do it. It's not my lawsuit..They have the bpo report. That's what I agreed to supply and they have it.

^^and what are the odds of that ever happening? Bankruptcy judges don't call witnesses; they make informed decisions.

I'm put on this earth to help people. If they need help, like a bankruptcy court document as is 100% of the time so far, I'm happy to stand by my work. Lord knows that homeowner has been through enough already as it is without needing me to make things more difficult.

It takes all of 5 minutes of my precious time and 15cents of my precious ink to print, sign, scan and email it.

For doing all that, I will get to wear another star in my golden crown in heaven.

not so fast Artiste...I think "judgement" just cost you your star..lol..but if I'm asked, I'll waive it

seriously, that's ok for you to what you want on court documents that is how you choose to work your business. How do you know it's the homeowner's attorney? Perhaps the attorney is with the big bad wolf trying to take their house...I've been on the planet for decades and have a track record in helping people that speaks for itself. "Helping" an attorney on a lawsuit I am not a party to and getting involved in a legal suit like that isn't something I'm comfortable with- that's the choice I am making on this type of involvement.

Now if you want to have a good time helping people, meet me down at the soup kitchen Friday night for open mic and it will surely put a smile on your face

Because the declaration is written on court document paper and it has the details of who is what and what is who.

I'm not even sure I'm going to heaven - the best can I hope for is a space on the side of the grill, away from the hottest part in the center

Well....as long as it's not a lawyer at the pearly gates I'm betting we're ok on the bpo thing..lol

I just received one of these declarations but the debtor's name on the declaration is not the same as the name of the homeowner per the tax record. I called the law office and they said the property was deeded to the person on the declaration. I have signed a couple of these declarations but I'm really leary about signing this one. The law office said they were going to send me a copy of the deed but even still. What would you do? I believe the declaration is only to confirm that you did do a BPO on the property and that is the value you came up with. I'm OK with signing that as long as everything else seems kosher.

Just sign it and move on with your life. I don't see how the name on the deed matters. They only care what your value is on the bpo.

Just received one of these for the first time ever in 15+ years. I declined to sign any type of affidavit since I was not informed there was a legal purpose for the BPO when it was ordered. If I had been informed prior to accepting the order, I would have requested that the order be reassigned.

A couple of months ago I was contacted by the Secerect Service about an order I did, I was told to hand over the order or they would have a supena in the matter of hours for it, I told them I personally could not give them a copy but they could contact the mill, I gave them the mills contact info and they recieved a copy from them. I was told that I would have to appear in front of a Grand Jury to testify about the report if it made it that far. Luckly it didn't, as there was a plea bargin. I guess this involved forged document, fake appraisals, just some shady Sh## etc... The guy ended up getting 4 years in jail because of the value. I am glad it didn't go to court, not that I didn't stand by the value but just having to deal with the whole situation.

If you guys aren't doing it, you'd better begin to either print all of your bpos, save them to a file in full, or at least screen capture it even if it is in multiple screen windows.

There are a few companies out there, some are the big ones mentioned here all of the time, that will change your bpo and they only name on it is your's. If you have no proof of what you submitted, you are SOL if questions come up.

when you have a few minutes, go back to the company's site and bring up your bpo and look at it. It will shock you sometimes what changes have been made. I have seen distances in rural areas changed from 30 miles to 3 miles on my bpos. I have seen square footages magically change. It will amaze you.

I have done many appraisal reviews for a few of the companies and they are finding out that some appraisers were falsifying MLS data in order to fit comps to a target price.

Before you submit your bpos, just same all the bpos to a file and back it up with the rest of your data regulally. I save everyone to a file and the BPOs are named company-street name-date, RRR Maple 09302010, so that I can easily go back and find it.

CYA!

Gig em - I think you suggested this a long time ago...and I started doing it because you suggested it. I have since seen the changes and it is not only aggravating but, as you said, shocking. I had a rehab bid changed once that really ticked me off. Vinyl siding was needed to cover old cracking asbestos shingle siding on a 2400 SF house. They lowered the repair to $1500.00 for the whole house.

Now I capture everything on screen and save in a file and have that proof of what I submitted versus what was done after it was submitted.

Good advice.

A couple of year ago, I received the typical attorney letter. Questions like...verify my license number, would I testify in court? (they can verify my license via the state board). Although I didn't want to be a "stick your head in sand" agent, I decided after consulting w/ attorney to ignore their email.... (And this is over a $50 BPO?) After 2 attorney email requests, I never heard from them again. That worked for me..............I never heard from them again.

I just received something US Bankruptcy court SECURED CREDITOR’S OPPOSITION TO MOTION TO VALUE.

They are asking me state I am licensed that I would be willing to testify. It was a hard property to value and I did the best I could. Is this something I must sign?

I just received two requests for a declaration on the same day from the same law firm, but from two different BPO companies. When I asked for compensation for the additional liability and a promise to pay for additional work, they said no. Then they said they were going to contact the bank AND my bpo company and tell them I am a non-cooperative broker.

That sounds like a threat to me since they have no affiliation with the bpo company I can see. This seems completely inappropriate to me. Anyone else?

I suggest you ignore the request all together as either way you respond seems to be detrimental.

* I had talked to my bpo company prior to replying and they said I can handle it any way I want and it will not have any bearing on our working relationship.

An attorney representing the bank taking the asset to FC had to deal with the BK Trustee, who obtained a value from his RE Broker. The Bank FC Attorney already had the BPO I performed from the AMC and asked if I could testify in court as to my value and method of sales comparison approach. He told me the Bank would pay me $300 for the day if I had to testify. The attorney flew in from St Louis and a couple of days ahead of the court hearing and we scheduled meeting the afternoon before but it was canceled at last minute due to the compromise reached by the BK Trustee and the FC attorney for the Bank. The trustee had relied on a half page summary, no comps, for his opinion of value while the BPO I had performed was a standard FNMA BPO grid comparision form. No sweat here I stand by my work.