INVERSE CONDEMNATION

Condemning authorities may sometimes take actions that somehow limit the use of your property. Typically, when a condemning authority wants to take property for a public purpose, it will use of the power of eminent domain to bring a condemnation action against the landowner. However, sometimes there is no condemnation proceeding or actual taking of your land. You may still experience a significant negative impact from a government action that results in a decrease in your property value. In these instances, a North Carolina landowner may bring an inverse condemnation action against the condemning authority to hold it accountable for the losses and damages to their property.

EXAMPLES OF INVERSE CONDEMNATION?

Inverse condemnation may be a direct, physical taking of ormere  interference with real or personal property by a public entity. For example, inverse condemnation actions have been successfully brought for:

• Where government construction caused flooding on a property
• Where government construction caused sewage to escape onto a property
• Where government construction caused an interference with land stability
• Where government construction caused a significant impairment of access, or noise from overflying aircraft.
• When an eminent domain taking causes a property or buildings on a property to be in violation of applicable zoning ordinances this can result in damages to the property and an inverse condemnation lawsuit may be appropriate.