UAD 3.6 Compliance Checklist: Avoid Common Rejection Triggers

A report that gets kicked back is rarely wrong about the value — it is usually tripped up by something structural: a field left blank, a number that does not reconcile, or a comment that contradicts the data above it. Those are the cheap mistakes to prevent, because catching them is a matter of looking in the right places before you submit.

This is a general orientation, not compliance advice. The authoritative source is always the official UAD documentation and your client’s specific requirements; use this as a prompt to check your own process against them.

Most rejection triggers are set in motion before you ever reach the property, by working from an incomplete order. Confirm you have the right form for the assignment and the property type, and that you understand any client-specific conditions up front. A mismatch between the form and the assignment is far cheaper to fix before the work than after.

Know what data the standard expects you to capture, so you are not discovering a required field for the first time back at your desk with the property no longer in front of you.

The data-first standard rewards clean, structured entry and punishes loose free-text where a structured value belongs. As you capture, prefer the specific field over a note that approximates it. The most common avoidable flags come from information that was collected as prose when the standard wanted it as data.

Watch the places where sources disagree — square footage, lot size, room counts. When MLS and public records differ, decide which you are relying on and capture the reasoning, rather than leaving an unexplained number that a reviewer will question.

Do a reconciliation pass. The figures in your narrative should match the figures in the data fields — a value mentioned in a comment that disagrees with the grid above it is one of the easiest contradictions for an automated check to catch and one of the easiest for you to miss.

Then check for the silent blanks: required fields left empty, an adjustment with no supporting explanation, a condition rating that the photos and comments do not back up. A short, honest note explaining a judgment call is almost always more defensible than an unexplained entry.

Avoiding rejections is less about knowing obscure rules and more about discipline at three checkpoints: the right form before you start, structured data while you capture, and a reconciliation pass before you send. Build the habit of checking those, and most of the common triggers never make it into the report.