These Standards will cover the following areas:

A. Data documentation and appraisal reporting standards
B. Legal basis for appraisal standards for federal land acquisitions
C. Standards for the review of appraisals
D. Standards for unique and miscellaneous appraisal problems

Section A of these Standards derives from generally accepted professional appraisal standards and appraisal reporting standards. However, these have occasionally been modified to meet the overriding standards created by federal law, as described in Section B of these Standards. The standards for appraisal report content and documentation presented in this section must be met. However, the appraisal report formatting presented here is merely recommended rather than mandatory. ₂

Section B of these Standards is based on federal case law, which is cited throughout the section. The U. S. Constitution provides that private property will not be taken and converted to public use by the government without payment to the landowner of just compensation. The federal courts have adopted the working rule that, in general, the just compensation due for the acquisition of property by the government is equivalent to the property's market value. It is, therefore, incumbent upon appraisers who make market value appraisals for federal land acquisitions to understand the federal case law relating to proper application of the appraisal process as applied to federal land acquisitions.

In addition to the case law that supports and, in some instances, dictates the standards set out in Section A, Section B includes a discussion of the legal standards established for treatment of many recurring valuation problems. Therefore, Section B of the Standards is intended for use not only by appraisers, but also by agency and Department of Justice attorneys whose legal practice includes matters relating to real estate valuation.

Section C of the Standards is derived from generally accepted appraisal review standards, as well as from federal regulations requiring such reviews. The purpose of Section C is to insure that appraisals used by the government in its land acquisitions have been conducted in an unbiased, accurate, and thorough manner in accordance with these Stanards and applicable law.

Section D addresses the proper treatment of specialized or unique but frequently encountered appraisal problems.

While these Standards aim both to encourage uniform approaches to appraisal problems and to prescribe requirements for adequate supporting data and other factual information used to develop market value estimates, the materials are not in any degree pre-sented to limit the scope of appraisal investigations or to bias the independent judgment of value estimates of appraisers employed by federal agencies. Also, to insure maximum flexibility to agencies in accomplishing their program goals, provisions have been made, under certain circumstances, for the modification of the Section A "Data Documentation and Appraisal Reporting Standards." (See Section A, Introduction.)

2 Nonetheless, appraisers should review their appraisal contracts or assignment letters in this regard. Some agencies may specify in their contracts/ assignment letters that the use of Section A formatting is mandatory. 

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