Noah, The "government" part of your question is the IRS, who are interested in the value you would place on a piano that is donated to charity (and would be deducted on a 1040), and on what your qualifications are to assess that value. The IRS would like you to be a "qualified appraiser." That means (quoting from the IRS Web site): The individual either: Has earned an appraisal designation from a recognized professional appraiser organization for demonstrated competency in valuing the type of property being appraised, or Has met certain minimum education and experience requirements. For real property, the appraiser must be licensed or certified for the type of property being appraised in the state in which the property is located. For property other than real property, the appraiser must have successfully completed college or professional-level coursework relevant to the property being valued, must have at least 2 years of experience in the trade or business of buying, selling, or valuing the type of property being valued, and must fully describe in the appraisal his or her qualifying education and experience. The individual regularly prepares appraisals for which he or she is paid. The individual demonstrates verifiable education and experience in valuing the type of property being appraised. To do this, the appraiser can make a declaration in the appraisal that, because of his or her background, experience, education, and membership in professional associations, he or she is qualified to make appraisals of the type of property being valued. The individual has not been prohibited from practicing before the IRS under section 330(c) of title 31 of the United States Code at any time during the 3-year period ending on the date of the appraisal. The individual is not an excluded individual. An "excluded individual" means basically that you are not the piano's owner and you don't intend to buy it. You don't have a dog in the fight. In your case, if it came to court, I would think you would be expected to show similar credible appraisal experience. As far as I know, there is no "government license" for appraisers, at least at the federal level. John Granholm, RPT On Jul 15, 2010, at 10:31 AM, Noah Frere wrote: > Yesterday I recieved a call from someone representing the church piano asking me to come and look at their grand piano purchased about a year ago. There are string breakage problems and the company from whom they bought the piano has been out twice to repair broken strings, but now will no longer answer the phone, although the warranty is not yet expired. There are now 8 broken strings. > > They intend to sue the piano store, get the money back and purchase a different piano. They intend to use my evaluation, possibly in court, to back up their case. > > I see red flags. I remember attending a lecture by a tech a couple years ago about the importance of some sort of government license needed for appraisals. I am going to go read up on this matter, but if anyone has any knowledge or advice I sure would appreciate it. I only tentatively booked the appointment, and I plan on confirming, or more likely, canceling, tonight after I know more. > > -Noah Frere -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100715/cd2ebd88/attachment-0001.htm>
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