Real Estate & Property Law

Indiana Owners Look to Fight I69 Expansion

By Alan Ackerman

The farmers between Evansville and Indianapolis are expressing their concern over the proposed condemnation of their properties.

The article written by Linda Greene of the Bloomington Alternative, captures a case of how those opposed to the project are trying to unite in opposition. The key issue, possibly missed by the scrivener of the article is that INDOT has specific requirements in the offer process. After receiving an offer, owners do have rights, including retention of their own experts. What is significant in Indiana is law, which attempts to fairly and fully compensate the owner, although often deficient.

The Bloomington Alternative

It's landowners' statutory right to receive a price, appraisal and good-faith negotiations from INDOT, but INDOT doesn't always follow those procedures, according to Guthrie. Landowners have "very limited substantive procedural rights in the process."

A landowner has 30 days in which to respond to INDOT's offer to buy the property. At this point the condemnation and taking of the property is inevitable unless the landowner can prove that INDOT doesn't need the property for the highway. For the landowner, "winning" isn't preventing INDOT from acquiring the property but only obtaining a better price than INDOT originally offered.

Landowners have the right to negotiate with INDOT about the sale price of the properties, but once they sign contracts with INDOT for the sale of the property, they can't challenge the price. Guthrie stressed that INDOT doesn't have the right to take the property until the landowner signs a sale contract with the agency.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on October 06, 2010 (boomark / email).