Florida Law
The authority, the constitutional limits, and the features that make Florida different from most other states.
Eminent domain is the power of government to take private property for public use. Every state has it. What differs is how tightly the power is bounded and how generously the taking is paid for, and on both counts Florida sits at the protective end of the range.
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. The word full is doing real work: Florida does not simply guarantee market value.
The short answer
Florida requires a public purpose and full compensation. It bars takings aimed at clearing blight, restricts handing condemned land to private parties, allows compensation for damage to an established business, and makes the condemning authority pay the owner reasonable costs and attorney fees.
The constitutional standard, and why it reaches past the strip acquired.
In preparationCompensation for harm to an established business, which most states do not allow.
In preparationThe condemning authority carries the owner reasonable costs and attorney fees.
Read moreWhat Florida prohibited after the national debate over economic development takings.
Read moreArticle X section 6 sets the public purpose requirement and the full compensation standard.
The legislature authorises specific bodies, including FDOT, counties, municipalities, school boards, water management districts and certain utilities.
Section 73.015 requires a good faith attempt to negotiate, with a written offer and the appraisal behind it.
Chapter 73 governs the petition, the pretrial hearing and the trial.
Chapter 74, proceedings supplemental to eminent domain, allows possession and title in advance of final judgment against a deposit.
Section 73.071 puts value, severance damages and business damages to a jury.
Section 73.091 for costs, section 73.092 for attorney fees measured on the benefit obtained.
Section 73.071(3)(b) allows compensation for damage to a business operating on the property, subject to conditions that include the business being of more than five years standing where the taking occurs on or after 1 January 2005. In most states this loss is simply not compensable.
Section 73.014 prohibits the use of eminent domain to eliminate nuisance, slum or blight conditions. This closed a route that had been widely used elsewhere.
Section 73.013 restricts conveying condemned property to private entities, subject to defined exceptions such as utilities, public infrastructure and transportation.
Section 73.091 makes the condemning authority responsible for reasonable costs of the defence, and section 73.092 sets attorney fees by reference to the benefit obtained for the owner.
Article X section 6 uses the phrase full compensation rather than the narrower formulations found elsewhere. On a partial taking in particular it directs attention to what the owner has lost, including the effect on the land that remains.
On several measures it is more protective. Business damages, the prohibition on blight takings and the shifting of costs and attorney fees to the condemning authority are all unusual.
Section 73.013 restricts conveying condemned property to private entities and section 73.014 bars blight based takings. Both were responses to the debate that followed the economic development takings of the mid 2000s.
Where the parties do not agree, section 73.071 puts compensation to a jury, including severance damages and business damages where they apply.
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