homeacquired

Compulsorily acquired? You know what this means, don’t you? They’re acquiring it compulsorily! — Darryl Kerrigan

Finding out that your home or property is to be compulsorily acquired ‘on just terms’ to make way for a new railway, airport or expressway is a traumatic experience for many: it most certainly seems to be about the vibe, and a very bad one at that.

So when it comes to the responsibility of the government to inform you of its decision to remove your right to live where you want, government officials should ensure that they do the job right on the day, and not run away because the media showed up to cover the happy event.

As it stands now, about 50 families in the western suburbs are still unsure as to whether or not their homes are in danger of being bulldozed for the proposed Regional Rail Link, despite having been visited by government officials yesterday morning. Certain members of government must be fuming about the administrative cock-up in Footscray on Tuesday, and we would like to commemorate the occasion by trying to clarify a very sticky field of government policy.

What is the protocol for informing a local resident that their property will be compulsorily acquired?

Residents should be informed with a Notice of Intention to Acquire from the Department of Transport. If you are happy to have your house bought out from under you, it is possible to negotiate a price with the government at this stage. If you don’t do this, it will publish a Notice of Acquisition in the Victorian Government Gazette. This will (apparently) formalise the acquisition, wrenching the legal ownership of the land from your sweaty, nervous grasp. It is only then that the government will try to negotiate with you for your agreement (which you have to give, it’s compulsory).


What is the usual time period for informing a local resident before their property is acquired?

It’s somewhere between two and six months, although compulsory acquisitions have been known to take years to go through. The lovely, helpful brochure from the Department of Transport says that it will give you as long as it can, but not bloody likely. It wants its  land, and wants it now. It doesn’t have to ask your permission, and it won’t.


How much compensation can residents expect for their properties?

The government says that it will give you market value for your property, plus the possibility of compensation. Do yourself a favour and decline the first offer. Ben Hardwick, from Slater and Gordon Lawyers, says that in many cases (properly represented) home owners can be compensated up to three times the initial government offer.

Will residents affected by yesterday’s Regional Rail Link announcement be offered solatium (compensation for sentimental value and inconvenience), and how much can they expect?

Yes. They tend not to use the technical term, but they do refer to it loosely as compensation. The solatium is 10% of the market value of your property, but it may be less depending on how distressed you are about the affair. But hell, if you can get three times the market value for your home, you shouldn’t need to worry about crazy Latin legal terminology.

How will the government be dealing with the emotional responses to this acquisition? Will counselling be offered?

Probably not. Solatium is the provision for your distress, and that is valued at 10% of the market value of your home. However, if you can get a really good lawyer, remember that you could get THREE TIMES the initial government offer.

How should government officials deal with the presence of media when given the task of informing local residents about a compulsory acquisition?

They don’t seem to want to answer questions such as this at the moment. They responded by sending Crikey a lovely brochure, entitled Land Acquisition and Compensation: General Information for Property Owners, which you can find at www.transport.vic.gov.au.


Will residents, whose property is not compulsorily acquired but is still affected by noise, light or noise from the infrastructure built, be compensated for the inconvenience and devaluing of their property (due to a new proximity to rail lines, freeway, etc.)?

The government won’t say, but there are strong grounds for a case for compensation if your home will be so affected by a new development.

Once a proposal for compulsory acquisition has been announced, do home owners have any chance of winning an appeal to the decision, a la The Castle?

Hardwick: “Ultimately if the government wants to acquire land to build a road or a railway you can’t stop them. The best thing that owners can do is to speak to a lawyer about maximising a compensation entitlement.

“Under the act (Land Acquisition and Compensation Act 1986), once you’ve been compulsorily acquired, you are entitled to an advance, so you can get the money within 30 days”.

If you choose to claim an advance payment from the government, this does not mean that you are accepting their first offer of market value and the 10% solatium. You are entitled to claim a portion of the final agreed amount, without having actually agreed on an amount. Talk to your lawyer about maximising that final amount.