Your Situation
What sits behind a Florida offer, what the appraisal assumed, and the parts of value it may not have reached.
Before a condemning authority files suit in Florida, section 73.015 requires it to attempt to negotiate in good faith and to give the owner a written offer supported by the appraisal it relies on. That package is the offer.
The appraisal behind it is a professional opinion prepared for the acquiring agency. It is a reasonable starting point and it is not the last word, particularly where only part of your property is being taken.
The short answer
Read the appraisal, not just the number. Most disagreements in Florida turn on assumptions buried in it: what the highest and best use was taken to be, how access was treated, and whether harm to the remaining land was valued at all.
The base measure, and the comparables the appraiser chose.
In preparationWhether this is a strip, a corner or a corridor, and what is left.
In preparationWhether harm to the remainder was valued or assumed away.
In preparationDriveway changes, medians and turning movements.
In preparationWhether a business on the property was considered at all.
In preparationHow the leftover parcel was treated after the take.
In preparationFee, permanent easement, temporary construction easement, or a mix. Each is valued differently.
This single assumption drives the number more than any other.
Are they genuinely comparable in size, zoning, frontage and date?
On a partial taking, the value of what is left before and after the project is a separate question.
An appraisal that treats access as unchanged, where the plans move a driveway, is worth questioning.
If a business of standing operates there, section 73.071(3)(b) may be in play and is easily overlooked.
Section 73.091 makes the condemning authority responsible for reasonable defence costs, which alters the calculation on obtaining one.
Section 73.015 requires the attempt to negotiate. Treating the first figure as fixed gives up the stage the statute created.
Under section 73.092 attorney fees are measured by the benefit achieved for the owner. The structure exists precisely so that owners can test an offer.
No. The presuit offer is the statutory attempt to reach agreement. If no agreement is reached the authority may file a petition and compensation is decided in court.
Compensation is determined on the evidence of value. Section 73.071 puts that question to a jury where the parties cannot agree.
Many owners do, particularly on partial takings where the remainder analysis is the contested part. Discuss it with a licensed Florida attorney first.
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