Arizona SB 1291 failed to pass Tuesday afternoon in the Arizona House. The bill would have required a two-thirds majority and passed by less than that. I’ll post further when I know more.
Further notice: Here’s what it all means:
To have passed, the bill would have had to have passed by a two-thirds majority. Then it would have gone back to the Senate, where is also would have had to pass by a two-thirds majority. This is a Constitutional bias in the Arizona legislature against new laws of any sort — generally a good thing.
Since the bill did not pass the House, this means the old version of ARS Chapter 36 is still in effect. It is this version of the law that Zillow.com is alleged to be violating by the Arizona Board of Appraisal.
That allegation has not been tested in court, nor have any of Zillow.com’s direct competitors been alleged to have violated ARS Chapter 36.
As another wrinkle, the amendments made yesterday to AZ SB 1291 that would have clarified that offering the output from an Automated Valuation Model at no cost is not an appraisal, subject to regulatory oversight, could be appended onto another bill. In other words, the existing language of ARS Chapter 36 could be revised to achieve the same effect as yesterday’s amendments.
This is a statement released by Zillow.com this afternoon:
From Lloyd Frink, Zillow co-founder and President:
The issues that Arizona Senate bill 1291 sought to address went far beyond questions about automated valuation models for real estate. The fact is we are still extremely pleased that the Arizona House of Representatives decided to amend SB1291 to recognize the value that sites like Zillow bring to consumers in providing free and easy online access to real estate data and home valuations. We remain confident that any future reviews will similarly recognize the importance that sites like Zillow deliver in creating better informed and educated real estate consumers. Nothing has changed and we will continue to make Arizona Zestimates available for free to all Zillow users.
Additional details RE: AZ Board of Appraisals:
We strongly believe that providing Zestimate home Read more
