The government doesn't have to fully disclose to you all impacts to the remaining property caused by the taking. That is the landowner’s and tenants’ responsibility. The “What” and “How” of any impact can require review of permits for the project, surveys, consideration of existing drainage patterns, and a thorough review of construction plans that frequently are more than 500 pages in total. And, the inexperienced will not know what they are looking at, but an experienced attorney in eminent domain does. A classic example occurred over 25 years ago when the son of a landowner called my office.

His father voluntarily conveyed a strip of their property for the expansion of two roads (from 2 lanes to 4 lanes on either side) to create an intersection of two 4-laned roadways. The right-of-way agent touted that his father's house would be great for redevelopment as a convenience store, worth multiple times more than its current value as a home.

But, the lone fact not disclosed was that the new roadway would be 6 to 10 feet higher than his property’s elevation, and that the house would be located generally in a hole after the construction of both roads.

Five years after the acquisition, when the road construction was started, the landowner realized they've been had. He still held out hope for the convenience store to come calling. But they never did. To this day, that house still remains; and that convenience store has never been built, as the cost to fill the site to 1 foot above the elevation of new roads has made it cost prohibitive to develop the site.

This example is the reason every landowner and business owner should hire an attorney. You get one chance. The devil is in the details.