Accreditation by SVAI
This shows the public and the insurance industry that your appraisal reports meet or exceed the best practices guidelines for appraising collector or specialty interest vehicles as established by SVAI. This is a fundamental part of our goal to increase the level of professionalism for such types of appraisals and appraisers.
Once accredited, you qualify for Errors and Omissions insurance (mandatory).
Associate members are encouraged to become accredited within their first year of membership.
When ready to apply for accreditation the associate member forwards a fee of $100.00 to the SVAI treasurer. This fee covers the SVAI accreditation manual and the accreditation review conducted by the SVAI Accreditation Chair and assistant. The Accreditation manual contains a knowledge test (based on information in the training manual) as well as explaining the other accreditation requirements.
Upon receipt of the accreditation payment, the treasurer notifies the executive of the request and the accreditation chair forwards a copy of the accreditation manual to the applicant.
For accreditation, the member must:
• Submit a copy of his/her resume,
• A sample appraisal for peer review,
• Complete the knowledge test that is contained in the accreditation manual.
This information would be submitted to the accreditation chair who is listed on the web site.
*According to the bylaws of SVAI:
It is the intent of SVAI to have associate members apply for accreditation within six months of joining the
association and submit the knowledge test, resume and sample appraisal within 1 year of joining the association.
When the accreditation chair receives the knowledge test he/she reviews the answers for acceptability and passes or fails the applicant accordingly. When the accreditation chair receives the sample appraisal for peer review, he/she forwards the appraisal to one of the SVAI executive for assistance (reviews are performed by the Accreditation Chair and one assistant from the current SVAI Executive). Any SVAI executive member who is asked to assist in reviewing the sample appraisal does so by filling out the appraisal accreditation review form with comments, and forwards the results of their review to the Accreditation Chair.
Accreditation Application is accepted:
If two or more members deem that the applicant’s sample appraisal meets or exceeds our standards for appraisal reports, and passes the knowledge test, then the Accreditation Chair informs the executive and the applicant that he/she is now accredited.
The Accreditation Chair may also give the applicant some comments as received by the reviewers that might improve the applicant’s future appraisal reports. The Accreditation Chair would also notify the
executive of the member’s new status. Upon receipt of this notification, the SVAI secretary will update the website member information or have the web site manager assist with this task.
If the applicant is accepted for accreditation, the applicant will then be invoiced $475.00 (pro-rated) by the treasurer for mandatory errors or omissions insurance, as per the SVAI bylaws. Depending on the timing of the submission, the insurance fee will be pro-rated for the balance of the fiscal year.
If the Accreditation Application is NOT accepted:
If two or more members deem that the applicant’s sample appraisal does NOT meet SVAI standards for appraisal reports, or the knowledge test is failed, then the Accreditation Chair informs the applicant that he/ she has not been accepted. The Accreditation Chair will also give the applicant some comments as received by the reviewers for required changes to the report for approval and accreditation.
If the applicant is declined accreditation, he / she has six months to re-submit a sample appraisal or knowledge test to the accreditation chair. There is no additional fee for re-submitting the information for review as long as the resubmissions are received within six months. If more than six months has elapsed, then the applicant must submit a $50.00 fee for accreditation and repeat the process as a new applicant.
