The letter arrives and it is almost always vaguer than you want it to be. Your property lies within a project corridor. The Department would like to arrange access to survey. Someone will be in touch. There is no figure, no date, and no clear statement of what is actually going to happen to your land.
That vagueness is not a tactic. At this stage the agency genuinely may not know the final alignment. But it does mean the first two weeks are unusually valuable, because almost nothing has been fixed yet and everything you do now is cheap. This is what to do with them.
Key takeaways. A notice is not a taking and nothing has been decided. Establish who is acquiring and exactly what interest they want. Get the plan sheet. Start the record now. Do not sign anything that grants rights or fixes a value until you understand what it does.
Week one
Keep everything, and date it
Every letter, envelope, card left at the door, plan sheet, email and voicemail. Note the date each arrived and, for phone calls, who called, what they said and what you said. This sounds fussy. It stops being fussy about eight months later when the question is what you were told and when.
Take photographs of the property as it stands now, particularly the driveway, the frontage, any signage, the parking arrangement and anything close to the boundary. Once construction starts, the before condition exists only in whatever record you made.
Establish who is acquiring
The letterhead tells you a great deal. In Florida the power sits with the state and with bodies the legislature has authorised, which includes the Department of Transportation, counties, municipalities, school boards, water management districts, expressway and transportation authorities, and certain utilities.
Knowing which body you are dealing with tells you what kind of project this is, which in turn tells you what is likely to be taken and how the property will be affected.
Find out what interest they want
This is the question owners most often fail to ask, and the answers are materially different.
Fee simple means they are buying the land outright and you will not own it afterwards.
A permanent easement means you keep ownership of the ground but they take the right to use it for a defined purpose, indefinitely. What the easement document permits determines how much of the value has really gone.
A temporary construction easement is a time limited right to use part of your land during the works. It should have an end date and a restoration obligation, and both should be in the document rather than implied.
Many acquisitions involve a combination. Ask which, and ask for it in writing.
Ask for the plan sheet
A right of way plan sheet showing the proposed take against your parcel tells you more in thirty seconds than the letter does in two pages. Find your driveway on it. Find your buildings. Look at what happens to the boundary and to the road opposite.
Agencies will generally provide this on request. If you are told it is not available yet, ask when it will be and note the answer.
Week two
Work out what the project does to access
This is the single most underestimated issue in Florida condemnation. Owners look at the area being taken. Projects damage value through access.
Look specifically for whether your driveway moves, whether it narrows, whether the grade changes, whether a raised median is going in that removes turns into your property, and whether crossovers further along the road are closing. For a business, any one of those can be worth more than the land itself.
Consider whether a business is affected
If a business operates on the property, Florida is one of the few states where damage to that business can form part of the claim. Section 73.071(3)(b) of the Florida Statutes brings business damages within what a jury may award, subject to conditions that include the business having been established more than five years where the taking occurs on or after 1 January 2005.
Start assembling the trading record now. Records that predate the project are far more persuasive than analysis produced after the event.
Understand what is coming next
Before a condemning authority files suit in Florida, section 73.015 requires it to attempt to negotiate in good faith and to provide a written offer supported by the appraisal it relies on. So a notice is usually followed, in time, by an appraisal and an offer.
Knowing that sequence is useful. It tells you that the appraisal is coming, that you are entitled to see it, and that the offer is a negotiating position rather than a final determination.
What not to do
Do not sign an entry agreement without reading it
A request to enter and survey is ordinary and usually reasonable. But an entry agreement is a document granting rights, and it is worth knowing what those rights are, how long they last, and what happens if something is damaged.
Do not agree a value in conversation
Casual remarks about what you would accept have a way of being remembered. Until you have seen the plan sheet, the appraisal and the effect on the rest of the property, you do not have enough information to have a view.
Do not assume the first figure is the figure
The presuit offer exists because the statute requires an attempt to reach agreement. It is the opening position in a process designed to have more than one step.
Do not assume you will have to pay to argue
This deters more Florida owners than it should. Section 73.091 makes the condemning authority responsible for reasonable costs incurred in the defence, and section 73.092 governs attorney fees, calculated by reference to the benefit obtained for the owner. The structure exists precisely so that property owners can test an offer without funding the fight themselves.
What full compensation means here
Article X section 6 of the Florida Constitution permits a taking only for a public purpose, and requires full compensation, paid to each owner or secured by deposit in the registry of the court and available to the owner.
Most state constitutions say just compensation. Florida says full. On a partial taking that word directs attention beyond the strip acquired to the effect on everything you keep, which is usually where the larger number lives.
Frequently asked questions
Does a notice mean I will definitely lose my property?
No. Projects change, alignments shift and parcels drop out of footprints. A notice means your property currently sits within the study or project area and the agency needs something from you, most often access to survey.
Do I have to let surveyors onto my land?
Requests for entry before any offer are routine. It is reasonable to ask what they intend to do, how long it will take, and to have the request in writing so that you know what you are agreeing to.
Should I get my own appraisal straight away?
Not usually in the first two weeks, because there is nothing to appraise against yet. Once you have the plan sheet and the agency appraisal, it becomes a serious question, and section 73.091 is relevant to the cost.
How long does the whole process take?
It varies widely with the project and with how far apart the valuations are. Do not plan around a general timeline. Confirm any deadline that actually applies to you with a licensed Florida attorney.
Can they take my property before agreeing the price?
Under chapter 74 of the Florida Statutes an authority may obtain possession and title in advance of final judgment through a declaration of taking and a deposit sufficient to fully secure and fully compensate those entitled. The amount you are owed is then determined afterwards.
What is the single most useful thing I can do right now?
Get the plan sheet and find your driveway on it. Almost every question that follows is easier to answer once you can see what the project actually does to your property.