What is “eminent domain”?

Eminent domain is a process through which a governmental agency takes real estate rights from property owners. Most often one hears about eminent domain takings where a governmental entity, either the United States or any state or an instrumentality of the state takes all of the property. An example of that is the taking by the Commonwealth of the Massachusetts of land to build highways. When Route 93 was built a lot of homes were taken by the Commonwealth and they were either moved or demolished in order to make way for that road way. The governmental entity can only take property for a public purpose in the property that it takes is usually “ substandard ". A recent United States Supreme Court case however eviscerated to a certain extent that requirement where the Court found that the overall public purpose and improvement that would result in the redevelopment of the property was sufficient even though the property being taken was not substandard. Many takings do not involve all of the property rights. For instance, in most subdivisions the city or town takes the roads so that they can become public roads. In those instances there is no payment. When the governmental entity does take property,it is required to pay the fair market value of the property taken. Very often they do not and there is a subsequent lawsuit by the property owner to recover the full value of the property taken.

If you have questions about this or any other real estate matter, please contact Tom Bennett at (617) 531-6574 or tvb@barronstad.com.