COLUMBUS — The appraiser who evaluated what is now Honey Run Highlands Park for the man selling the land to the Knox County Park District, has been found to have violated standard appraisal practices incorporated into Ohio law. However, no sanctions by the Ohio Real Estate Appraiser Board will be determined until either September or November.
In her appraisal of the property in 2009, Jayne E. Young of Newark, at the request of the owners, David and Nancy Dawson of Westerville, divided the 348-acre site into two parcels, an 8.45-acre site which included a farmhouse and outbuildings and 340 acres of vacant farm land. She appraised the smaller parcel at $202,000 and the larger at $1.7 million to arrive at the $1.9 million used as the basis for the park district’s purchase of the property.
A complaint was subsequently filed with the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing by Doug Givens of Gambier. The hearing on the complaint was held June 30.
The hearing officer, Michelle L. Riske-Morris, issued her findings Friday.
She ruled that Young’s appraisal violated Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice because she failed to note that the entire property had been offered for sale within the previous 12 months at lower prices and she failed to justify the prices she arrived at for the separated parcels.
The penalty for Young’s violation will be determined by the Ohio Real Estate Appraiser Board, either at its meeting Sept. 15 or on Nov. 17.
Ohio Department of Commerce spokesman Dennis Ginty said the board “can decide to accept, modify or reject the hearing officer’s report.” If it decided appraiser law has been violated, “the board can issue a revocation or suspension, impose a fine, order additional education, or issue a written reprimand.”
