Can The Government Take Your Land? Understanding Eminent Domain.
Losing a part of your property – however small – to eminent domain is an aggravating reality for landowners in the Western Texas Permian Basin. Energy producers have rights to ask for condemnation of your land when they want to build pipelines or transmission lines across it. However, you have the right to question their request and to fight for just compensation if your land is taken away from you.
At Gibson PC, our Houston eminent domain attorneys side with landowners – always. We understand how important your acreage is to you and how essential it is to your ranching or farming operation. Our legal staff will help you fight back if the reasons for condemnation are suspect, and help you document the damages you’ll suffer if you lose a slice – or a chunk – of your property to an easement or another eminent domain instrument.
Who Can Ask For Your Land To Be Condemned In Texas?
Your land can be condemned via eminent domain by pipeline companies and energy distributors who are seeking to do the following on your land:
- Operate and maintain long-distance oil and gas pipelines
- To build high-voltage power lines that will be suspended above your property
- Build electrical substations for power lines
- Construct infrastructure for maintaining the Texas electrical grid
Renewable energy operators, such as wind farm and solar panel contractors, cannot use eminent domain directly to have your land condemned. However, if they supply power to the electrical grid, they may play a part in the energy mix that is driving the electrical company to request eminent domain confiscation of your land.
Both pipeline and electrical companies must file paperwork to demonstrate that their plans will serve a public purpose. For example, the pipeline must move oil or gas to a public market, and the transmission wires must serve a need related to the electrical grid. Our attorneys can investigate the energy operator’s plans to determine if their initial ask for your property is lawful.
Fighting Back Against Condemnation Actions
You may have already experienced the first two steps of eminent domain actions – a “bona fide” offer on your property from the operator. The statutory timeline requires a minimum of 30 days between your initial written offer and the final written offer, after which you must be given at least 14 days to respond before a lawsuit can be filed. You may have also received a Landowner’s Bill Of Rights from the company, as required by state law.
But neither the offer nor your bill of rights pamphlet guarantee that you’ll receive compensation that sufficiently repays you for the true value that losing your land will cost you. Our attorneys can help you doing the following to fight an eminent domain action:
- Prepare your arguments for a Special Commissioners’ Hearing, during which a three-person panel of disinterested freeholders (property owners with no financial stake in the case) who reside in the county hears from both sides and sets an initial compensation amount.
- Representing you in a Texas County Court at Law or District Court if you choose to challenge the commissioners’ award and contest the operator’s right to take your land.
- Negotiate or litigate for fair severance damages, which cover the loss in value to your remaining land due to the permanent easement(s) the condemnation will create.
Some aspects of the eminent domain process are challenging for landowners, but hiring our skilled Houston energy lawyers sends a message to the operator that you mean business and you don’t intend to just sign the operator’s standard compensation agreement.
Essential Answers To Common Eminent Domain Questions
When a major energy producer wants to carve up your property, you need clear answers about the law. Our attorneys have offered answers to three questions they hear often in our Houston office.
How do federal eminent domain actions differ from those within Texas?
When an energy operator’s request crosses state lines, federal law applies to the eminent domain request. At the federal level, operators must still prove public necessity to proceed with the land condemnation. If an interstate natural gas pipeline operator holds a federal certificate, they may choose to file the condemnation lawsuit in either federal district court or state court. However, interstate oil pipelines and power lines generally must utilize state-level eminent domain authority and proceed entirely through Texas state courts under Texas procedural rules.
Our lawyers can explain the process for federal actions and are skilled litigators with experience in the federal rules of civil procedure.
How is compensation determined for landowners in eminent domain cases?
Under Texas law, the standard used to calculate your compensation is the property’s fair market value. Appraisers may estimate this value by looking at recent sales of comparable properties, the income the property generates, or the cost to replace improvements.
However, since it’s common for energy companies to ask for only a part of the property, severance damages should be factored into the compensation equation, since the permanent easements can impede the future sale of your land, limit how you can use it or handcuff future generations to a situation created long ago.
How can an attorney help me with an eminent domain action?
At Gibson PC, our lawyers will represent you at all stages of the eminent domain process, beginning with the pre-filing and land surveys by the energy producer. We can get involved in your case early and investigate the situation to provide compelling arguments challenging the right to take the land or for providing you with the full compensation you’ll need to recover after the land is taken.
Let Our Houston Eminent Domain Lawyers Uphold Your Property Rights
Eminent domain actions are not a blank check for energy companies to do what they want on your land. Contact us today for a free, no-obligation consultation about federal or state condemnation actions. Call 713-766-9076 or send us an online message to request your consultation.