In New York, condemnors have adopted particularly unfair practices which make the compulsory purchase of property by eminent domain even more distasteful. Our Eminent Domain Procedure Law specifically states that payment of just compensation is to be expedited and that litigation is to be reduced. EDPL Secs. 101 and 301. But this is not the practice.
One particularly pernicious practice is when the state makes a pre-vesting offer as required by law and when it is rejected as full compensation, it files another appraisal for a lower amount. This is a common practice by the State of New York. An offer is made as required by Section 303 of the EDPL. The owner elects to take that amount as an advance payment only and files an appropriation claim in the Court of Claims. Thereafter, when appraisals are exchanged, the state’s appraisal is for a lower amount. The state may have paid an advance payment in the higher amount. In many occasions, that advance payment is assigned to a bank to pay off mortgage debt or other liens.
