Eminent domain can affect any house in Georgia. Including a house of worship.

Church property is subject to an eminent domain taking, but the condemning authority often fails to understand – and may significantly underestimate – your church property’s value.

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Church Property and Georgia Eminent Domain Condemnation: What You Need to Know

When the government wants private land for a public project in Georgia, even sacred land, they can generally take it. This is true whether your church is in a big city like Atlanta or a small town like Tallulah Falls. With nearly 12,000 churches in the state, many Georgians regularly attend religious services. Unfortunately, even a small taking can dramatically and negatively impact your church.

While church land is not immune to a government taking, you are not helpless as a steward of the church. You can and should pursue maximum compensation for the harms your church will suffer from the government’s taking. And we can help.

Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor

There are complex legal and appraisal rules that apply to eminent domain takings of religious property, but we know how to help you. Four of our attorneys used to represent a state DOT, handling some of their biggest cases. They left after seeing too many property owners, including church property owners, leave money on the table without an experienced eminent domain attorney to help them.

For a free professional evaluation of your church property case, with no obligation, call us at 1-888-391-1339 today!

How eminent domain takings can affect churches and religious property

There are many possible impacts an eminent domain taking may have on your Georgia church and congregation:

Traffic Patterns: Will traffic around your church be rerouted? Will those new traffic patterns affect the accessibility of your church or the safety of your congregation?

Access: Could entrances and exits to your church property be blocked, moved, or eliminated?

Signage: What if GDOT takes the portion of your land where your church’s sign currently is? Can the sign be relocated given how strictly signage tends to be regulated?

Parking: Will the taking affect your parking capacity? Will the size of your congregation be reduced due to insufficient parking?

Church Buildings: Will your church building or facilities need to be altered due to GDOT’s project? Do you stand to lose some or all of a building?

Activity Space: Will GDOT’s taking reduce or eliminate space your church needs to serve the community – from outreach and gatherings to events and athletics? Or what if you were planning to use that land for a new church building?

Conformance With Regulations: After GDOT’s taking, will what remains of your church property lawfully conform to municipal rules? Will non-conformance restrict how your church can use the property in the future?

We have successfully represented many churches across Georgia and helped them maximize their compensation, and we can help your church, too.¹ We have created a statewide network of appraisers, engineers, and other land experts that we can leverage to help us build your case.

Since we’ve been in business, we’ve helped our clients get on average nearly 3x their initial offer!¹

Before you agree to any GDOT offer, call us at 1-888-391-1339 or contact us online for a free case evaluation.

Frequently Asked Questions About Church Property and Eminent Domain

Can you stop an eminent domain taking on your church’s land?

Is it costly to hire an experienced eminent domain attorney?

While it can be costly not to hire an eminent domain attorney to help you fight for maximum compensation, at our firm we offer a no-fee guarantee:

At the GA Eminent Domain Law Firm, you pay no attorney’s fee at all if we don’t recover compensation for you. Guaranteed. We also advance all costs of fighting your case, so you pay nothing upfront. There is no hourly fee and no retainer fee – even the case evaluation is free (and comes with no obligation).²

Here’s an example of how it can work:

Let’s say GDOT offers you $300,000 for the land they’re taking from your church. We leverage our network of land experts and inside DOT knowledge (remember, four of our attorneys used to represent a state DOT) to get your offer raised to $500,000. Our fee only comes from that additional $200,000, never your original offer. After our standard 1/3 contingency fee, $433,300 would remain – a $133,300 increase over your initial offer.^1,2

How much is your church property really worth? For a no cost, no obligation case evaluation, call 1-888-391-1339 today.

Get a free case
evaluation today.

There are only a handful of attorneys in GA who practice eminent domain exclusively. And even fewer with DOT experience. That’s why it’s always worth it to get a free case evaluation.

Here’s how it works:

1) Tell us about your situation.

2) We research your property as needed, using DOT maps, our own technology, and experience to see the exact effects.

3) We let you know what we think a fair offer would be. This evaluation is free, and there’s no
pressure or obligation to hire us after.

But please don’t wait to act. Waiting can hurt your case, and the cost is the same: free.

1-888-391-1339

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