You put a lot of effort and energy to buy a house like going through a long process of putting an offer, acquiring a mortgage, and signing tons of documents.
However, one fine day you come to know that your property is going to be acquired by the government for public use under a term known as eminent domain. In this post, we will understand what is eminent domain, and what is condemnation.
Eminent domain is a term in which the government has the legal power to take private property that you own and utilize it for public use.
According to The Fifth Amendment, proper remuneration needs to be provided to the property owner by the government to use this legal power. This term is sometimes also referred to as expropriation.
Condemnation is a process through which the government can take the title of the real estate property under eminent domain.
In this process, the government needs to provide just compensation to the owner of the property for the condemnation process to go through.
The eminent domain process starts with the property owner receiving a letter in the mail stating that your property is going to be used for public use, extending roads, putting utility pipes, overhead electrical wires, etc.
The government is going to engage an appraiser and the appraiser is going to appraise the part of the property that is going to be utilized for public use. From that appraisal, the government body is going to offer you some amount of money.
It is up to the property owner if they accept the offer if they feel they are being rightly compensated.
If the property owner disagrees with the money offered, the government body will file a lawsuit against you for your property, and they will deposit the amount of money that they offered in the Clerk of Court’s office in the county where your property is located.
You can get the offered amount disbursed to you and still fight them for a fair amount of money, however, you have to answer their lawsuit and you would have to present your case on why do you think that your property is worth more than what they have offered with a help of an attorney.
Your attorney will make sure that they bring in people that they work with like local experts in appraisal, land planning, zoning, etc.
With help of these experts, your attorney will be able to build a case for you as to why your property is worth more than the government has offered you in the first place.
This process of you getting the right value for your property may take a while however, you need to have local knowledge of local zoning requirements, watershed requirement, etc. that are unique to your area.
This would have a big impact on what you can do with your property after expropriation.
Once your attorney puts the case together as to why your property is worth more than they originally thought, then your attorney would mediate with the state and hopefully reach an agreement on the right amount for the property.
If they do not come to an agreement then the case will be handed over to the court where the jury will decide.
Eminent domain could be a daunting process. It is important that you know the local information about your area that could help you to ask for a fair value for your property.
The property owner is unable to do anything if the property is going for expropriation.
If the government has a valid reason for acquiring the property for public use, the best that a property owner can do is get a fair value for the property.
It is suggested to get the help of an attorney if you need to get a fair value for eminent domain