LAND and the Road Commission Please Read????????????

1. The governmental entity has rights to condemn for reasonable public need. First they must contact you and make a reasonable offer.

2. If you refuse, they can get a court order to award them the property. Only thing they need to show the court is that it is in the best public interest. You vacate the land and turn over title immediately.

3. You can first challenge the need. If that is successful, they cannot take possession. (I am told this challenge is very seldom successful). Secondly you can challenge the offer. The seizing party needs to show via certified appraiser what the "best use" value of the land is and that the offer is made on that. That means that while the land might be empty and worth only so much as empty land, if the best use is a mansion and it is reasonable to assume you could sell the land and one could be built, the value of the property should be based on this. If you challenge, the funds in the amount of their offer must be escrowed and a court date will be scheduled. You still have to give them title to the land.

4. Once a court date is set, you have a hearing to argue over price. The court determines the price. Generally won't be lower than their initial offer, though. All hinges on best use value.

Above is what I believe to be true,HOWEVER, I am not an attorney and the above should not be construed as legal advice completely accurate. It is what I have learned from experience.

JU

Since the land commission has come to you about purchasing, that makes it seem likely that your deed does not have offset provisions in it for them to use. As such, they must either purchase the land or do an eminant domain claim against it.

Beware of what selling the land commision a bit of your property does to your deed! Since they do not have offsets to build a road on your land, you likely have an older deed. This is a good thing! Keeps you out of flood plains, covanants, wildlife protection and such. If you proceed with the land commission request your deed will be modified. With that modification normally comes all the baggage of current regulations.

This can become highly significant. Currently, on the little county road I live, I'm the sole property owner with an old deed. The others are large parcels of some farms that were broken up a decade or two ago. I'm the primary piece of land holding up a major road expansion (to the relief of my neighbors). I also don't have to play flood plain games because of my creek (all my neighbors do though, it's in their new deeds). I also can go and play in my creek to my hearts content (again, neighbors can't, as specified in their deeds). Basically, I can use my whole property for whatever strikes my fancy. Most of my neighbors can't do anything at all with most of their land. All because of their newer property deeds.

So be *very* carefull about selling a portion of your land. It tends to open up a can of worms you most likely don't want opened up.

At some point, they will decide they want the land, take it, and assign a value to it. To get the most $$$ for it you need to push them near this point, but not over it. That is a difficult thing to do. Some people want to be fair, some want to suck every nickel out - on both sides of the issue. Good luck. :) These deals can go very badly if you get a snooty desk-person against you in the process. On the other hand there are some caring commissions out there that will try to treat you fairly. It's a crap shoot.

You need to know what the planned use of this land is, as it can affect the compensation you get for it.

Really not much else to say until you get more info.

--->Paul

Dusty

do they want it to widen the turning radius of the road?

set up a pumping station with night light?

better find out their purpose and don't believe a word they say. on the other hand, you're lucky. the state of virginia tried to take my corner by "adverse possesion"

remember, you might be dealing with snakes, don't be surprised if you get bitten.

i worked with VDOT also (for a couple of winters)

I'm in Halifax area.