The marriage of an appraiser to the County Tax Assessor-Collector in the same Texas appraisal district was determined by the [attorney general to break the law [Daily Times (TX)].](http://web.dailytimes.com/print.lasso?wcd=18179) It was determined to be a conflict of interest.

>”Isn’t that crazy? We thought it was funny that
> we had to wait for an attorney general’s opinion
> to tell us whether we could or couldn’t,” Rector
>told the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday. “I bet
>that’s never happened before.”

I can only imagine if the same ethical standard was applied to the lending-appraisal industries as a whole. The avoidance of even the perception of a potential conflict would render the structure of the lender-appraiser relationship illegal.

Sigh.