I Received an Eminent Domain Notice in California

Identify what you received

California agencies send several different documents, and owners often use one word for all of them. Read the letterhead and the first paragraph before you do anything else. The three you are most likely to see are a request for permission to enter, a notice of the hearing on a resolution of necessity, and a written offer.

• Permission to enter and inspect. The agency asks to come onto the property to appraise and survey it. You may negotiate the scope and the timing.
• Notice of hearing on a resolution of necessity. The agency must give at least fifteen days written notice and must let you appear and be heard.
• Written offer of full appraised value. The agency must make this offer, with a written summary of its basis, before it begins negotiations.

What the notice does not mean

A notice is not a judgment and it is not a final price. It is the opening of a process that California law structures with checkpoints in the owner’s favour. The agency must appraise before it offers, must offer before it negotiates, and must hold a public hearing before it files.

Projects also change. Alignments shift, funding lapses and designs are revised. A parcel under study is not the same as a parcel acquired.

What to gather now

Before the appraisal, assemble what an appraiser would want and what you would want an appraiser to see.

• Leases, rent rolls and any income the property produces.
• Recent improvements, their cost and their permits.
• Entitlements, zoning correspondence and any approved but unbuilt plans.
• Anything affecting access, parking, drainage, utilities or the way the property is actually used.

What happens next

The agency appraises the property, makes a written offer under Government Code sections 7267.1 and 7267.2, and negotiates. If the parties do not agree, the agency holds its hearing, adopts a resolution of necessity, and may then file a complaint in eminent domain and deposit probable compensation with the court.