CONSIDERING EMINENT DOMAIN? BE SURE TO PROVIDE THE MANDATORY "TEXAS LANDOWNER'S BILL OF RIGHTS"
None of the substantive eminent domain reform bills considered during the 2007 legislative session became law. However, the legislature passed (and the governor signed) a bill that creates a new step in condemnation procedures. H.B. 1495 (now codified as Texas Government Code Section 402.031 and Texas Property Code Sections 21.0112 and 21.012) provides for the creation of a “landowner’s bill of rights” to inform property owners of their rights regarding eminent domain.
Specifically, the law: (1) requires the Texas attorney general to prepare a written statement that includes a bill of rights for a property owner whose real property may be acquired by a governmental or private entity through the use of the entity's eminent domain authority; (2) provides that the landowner's bill of rights must notify the property owner of the right to a notice of the proposed acquisition of the owner's property, a bona fide good faith effort to negotiate by the entity proposing to acquire the property, an assessment of damages to the owner that will result from the taking of the property, and a hearing and right to appeal; (3) requires the attorney general to write the statement in plain language designed to be easily understood by the average property owner and make the statement available on the attorney general's Internet Web site; (4) requires, before the date a governmental or private entity begins negotiating with a property owner to acquire real property, that the entity send a landowner's bill of rights statement by first class mail to the person in whose name the property is listed on the most recent tax roll of any appropriate taxing unit authorized by law to levy property taxes against the property; (5) requires a governmental entity that is required to send the landowner's bill of rights to a property owner also post it on the Internet Web site of the entity if technically feasible; and (6) requires a condemnation petition to certify that the bill of rights has been sent. The law applies to condemnations that are initiated after February 1, 2008.
The attorney general's office has prepared the landowner's bill of rights, and a city that is required to send it to a landowner and post it on the city's Web site can download the document from: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/agency/Landowners_billofrights.pdf