Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia

Re: eminent domain

If part of your property is being taken, the jury will be able to consider the "eyesore" aspect of the proposed use in its award of compensation. "Just compensation" is somewhat subjective, so what it will be worth will depend on what the jury thinks, or what you can convince VDOT to pay.

Re: eminent domain

The measurement for how much money you should receive is the amount by which your land's value is diminished.

The legal test is NOT the amount of land taken, based on a $ value per acre.

The test is (a) what was the value of your land BEFORE - (b) what is the value of your land AFTER.

So if the impact on your land from the taking is greater than just the number of square feet physically obtained, you should get the amount by which your land is reduced in value.

Consider the following example: Suppose you had 10 acres, 9 1/2 acres of which is swamp land, and 1/2 acre is a buildable home lot. The city takes the 1/2 acre of land that is buildable homelot for part of a highway interchange.

Even though they have taken only 1/2 acre, they have essentially made the entire 10 acres worthless, by taking the only part of the land that could be used for building a home, leaving only swamp land.

So the measurement is not based on the number of square feet physically occupied, but on the totality of the land before minus the value afterward.

HOWEVER...

You will normally have to FIGHT with the city to get what you are entitled to.

You may need to battle them, possibly in court, to get what you deserve.

So they may TELL you all kinds of things, and refuse to see it as I just described.

What County is it in?