Inverse Condemnation
A condemnation is the legal process by which the government or public utility (North Carolina or a local city or county, or Duke Energy) takes title to property of a private owner. The taking must be for public purpose. Many times, the owner and condemning authority negotiate a price before formal legal proceedings are filed. If the owner does not agree with the government’s offer, the government must file a condemnation lawsuit to take the property. When it files this lawsuit, the government must deposit what it contends is the just compensation for the property and that deposit then transfers title to the area taken to the government. The owner has the right to contest the government’s opinion of just compensation and ultimately present its opinion on the value of just compensation to a jury.
What is a
condemnation case?
Just Compensation is the full and perfect equivalent in money of the thing taken by the government. It is intended to be a sum of money that place the owner in as good a position as if the taking had never occurred.
inverse condemnation:
A property owners can file a cause of action against a governmental defendant to recover the value of property which has been taken in fact by the governmental defendant, even though no formal exercise of the power of eminent domain has been attempted by the taking agency.
Inverse condemnation is a device which forces a governmental body to exercise its power of condemnation, even though it may have no desire to do so. .Inverse Takings Claims May Include Physical Intrusion On To Property, Regulatory Interference, And Substantial Interference With An Owners’ Property Rights Brought On By The Government Action Directed At The Property.