chris1515 said:
My family has some land that is slated to be the recipient of a glorious new gigantic power line (757kv) to deliver electricity to the Permian basin.
We've received several letters from various law firms offering their services.
What are some of the things we should be looking at to protect the land and interests and maximize whatever compensation we might get?
Should we get a lawyer? If so, any suggestions? What should you look for in an attorney for something like this?
My view is to ignore it and make Oncor go to court and use eminent domain to get the access. I don't even know if that's how this process would even work…
A neighbor has a 200 acre property that will be almost perfectly bisected by the line, and the land is a good candidate for subdivision, which I assume would be completely ruined for future development. What type of compensation should they be pursuing? Is the compensation only based on the land covered in the easement, or the entire parcel?
I am an attorney and just lost about 4 acres due to the water sewer authority (represented by my firm and law partner) using eminent domain to take the land. The are adding 35 feet to the reservoir behind my house.
I did not hire an attorney because it is a relatively straightforward process (and I'm an attorney). I also could not realistically "fight" the WSA since they are a good client of my firm. I'm also in Rotary and friends with the president of the WSA.
Basically, the process was this: They had an appraiser and sent a ridiculously low offer. I hired an appraiser who had a much higher appraisal, skewed with everything in my favor. In the end we split the baby and settled for exactly the average between the two appraisals. (This is also mostly what happens in court in my experience - "split the baby")
The problem I had is the eminent domain is actually going to improve the value of my property. They have already cleared the land. I sit on a very steep hill and my views now are phenomenal. Plus I will have deep water and am only one of about 4 homes with access to the reservoir. The downside for me was there were stream and other buffers that now came up to, and included, my house and yard. A literal reading of the rules, regulations and buffers would be that I could not drink alcohol in my house or have any pets. I created a bubble where that was excluded and grandfathered into the agreement we came up with.
I had two neighbors affected. One just said that he was going to follow me and do whatever I ended up doing. He of course knew about my obvious conflicts of interest. The other neighbor fought it tooth and nail and hired an attorney to take it to court. He got tired of paying the legal fees and eventually settled. In the end, he got more per acre, but I'm not sure he came out ahead financially. He had to pay the attorney and got several appraisals. Also, I received my money a year or so before he did. If you consider the time value of money - I put mine in the stock market - I most certainly came out way ahead of him.
I am in Georgia, so this is not legal advice for your situation. In Georgia, you not only get the value of the land taken, but also compensation for the impact on the remainder of your land. As I said earlier, the negative impacts on my remainder were vastly outweighed by the benefits. I think in your situation, the situation is reversed. You need to get your appraiser to focus on this.
I think my first hire would be on a bad ass, experienced appraiser who testifies in court, etc... I know these guys since I am an attorney, so you may not be able to do that without hiring an attorney first. The thing I would be wary of is these attorneys will bill you by the hour and have no incentive to settle. So be careful in your selection there.
You want an attorney to review any settlement before you sign anything. As above, you need to think about things you may need to add to the settlement agreement that you may not think about.
The power company or whomever has no incentive to go to court. You will likely come out ahead financially by settling rather than going to court, but that's your call and it depends on your situation.
An attorney I used to know (RIP) had this sign in his waiting room:
Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. Fight, but don't be boneheaded about it.
Again, not intended to be legal advice, I'm in Georgia, different laws, don't know all your facts, blah, blah, blah.
I also ran all my stuff through AI and it had great suggestions - but again, I'm a lawyer. It helped me pick out flaws in their appraisal. I would not rely solely on AI.
