Compensation
The base measure, the assumptions inside it, and why two appraisers reach different numbers.
Fair market value is the price a willing buyer would pay a willing seller, neither under compulsion and both reasonably informed. It is the starting point for every condemnation valuation in North Carolina.
It is also a conclusion built on assumptions. Change the assumption about what the land could best be used for, or which sales are genuinely comparable, and the number moves a long way without any arithmetic error.
Where the disagreement usually lives. Highest and best use, the choice of comparable sales, and whether the appraisal valued the entire tract or only the strip. Those three account for most contested North Carolina valuations.
The short answer
Fair market value is the base. On a partial taking it is only half the exercise, because section 40A-64 also requires the before and after comparison across the whole tract.
The second calculation the statute requires.
Read moreThe value of what you keep, afterwards.
In preparationAn effect the market prices even if an appraisal ignores it.
Read moreHow the components fit together.
Read moreReading the package you were sent.
Read moreWhere access and parking drive value.
Read moreFee, permanent easement or temporary construction easement.
Legally permissible, physically possible and financially feasible. This assumption drives everything after it.
Similar in size, zoning, frontage, access and date.
For differences between them and your property.
Before the taking.
After the taking and with the project built.
Section 40A-64 for most condemnors, section 136-112 for Department of Transportation cases.
If it assumes your land is worth less as a use than it plainly supports, everything downstream is understated.
Sales from a materially different market period need adjustment, and sometimes cannot carry the weight placed on them.
An appraisal that does not mention the driveway probably did not value its relocation.
Ask directly which of the two section 40A-64 measures produced the larger number.
No. Assessed value is produced for taxation on a mass appraisal basis and is not evidence of what a property would fetch in a sale.
Valuation asks what the property was worth before the taking, and what the remainder is worth afterwards with the project built. How project influence is handled is a technical question worth raising with counsel.
Yes, and on contested partial takings owners commonly do.
Then the section 40A-64 comparison has not been performed. Ask for the before and after analysis of the entire tract.
Explore North Carolina resources matched to your property, the project affecting it, and the stage you have reached.
Get Help