Compensation
What compensation covers, and the measure that makes North Carolina unusually favourable on partial takings.
Compensation in North Carolina is built from the value of what is taken and the effect on what you keep. On a partial taking, which is the commonest pattern, the second question is frequently worth more than the first.
The statutes are explicit about how this is measured, and the measure is worth reading carefully because it gives owners a choice of two calculations rather than one.
The greater of two figures. Section 40A-64 sets compensation for a partial taking as the greater of the amount by which the fair market value of the entire tract immediately before the taking exceeds the fair market value of the remainder immediately after, or the fair market value of the property taken. For Department of Transportation cases, section 136-112 sets the equivalent measure.
The short answer
Start with the value of the interest acquired, then ask what the project does to everything you keep, then take whichever figure is greater. Skipping the second calculation is the most common way value is lost.
The base measure and the assumptions inside it.
Read moreWhere a strip is acquired and the rest remains.
Read moreHow the remainder is valued after the project.
In preparationDriveways, crossovers and turning movements.
Read moreWhat a corridor easement permits and costs.
In preparationEffects on an operating business.
In preparationFee, permanent easement or temporary construction easement. Each carries a different value.
The assumption that moves the number most.
Market evidence applied to the interest acquired.
The whole property as it stood.
The same land with the take made and the project built.
Section 40A-64 gives the owner whichever of the two measures is larger.
Section 136-113 treats interest as part of just compensation in Department cases.
If the appraisal values the strip and stops, the section 40A-64 comparison has not been performed at all.
An appraisal assuming circulation is unaffected, against plans that relocate a driveway or close a crossover, understates the loss.
Before and after valuation of the land you keep is where partial taking cases are won or lost.
Where a Map Act corridor restricted your land, the Supreme Court has held that damages are measured by the difference in fair market value immediately before and immediately after the recording.
Section 40A-64 gives the greater of the before and after reduction in the fair market value of the entire tract, or the fair market value of the part taken.
The Department of Transportation operates under Chapter 136, where section 136-112 sets the measure of damages. For a partial taking it works on the difference between the value of the entire tract before the taking and its value afterwards.
Section 136-113 treats interest as part of just compensation in Department of Transportation cases.
No. The offer is the condemnor position based on its own appraisal. Compensation is what the court determines if you do not agree.
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