Project Impacts and Damages to Remainder Property in South Carolina Condemnations
When a condemning authority takes only a portion of a property owner's land through eminent domain—a partial taking—South Carolina law recognizes that just compensation includes not only the value of the land actually taken, but also any reduction in value to the remaining property caused by the condemnation project. These are known as "severance damages" or "damages to the remainder," and they represent a critical component of just compensation that condemning authorities often attempt to minimize or ignore.
What Are Severance Damages?
Severance damages compensate a property owner for the loss in value to the land that remains after a partial taking. This loss in value can result from a variety of project impacts, including loss of access, division of the property into smaller or irregular parcels, loss of visibility or road frontage, increased noise or traffic, flooding or drainage problems, loss of parking or loading areas, and incompatibility with the remaining property's use.
For example, if a highway widening project takes a 20-foot strip along the front of a commercial property, the taking may eliminate the property's parking lot, cut off direct access to the main road, reduce visibility from passing traffic, and leave the remaining building closer to highway noise and pollution. While the actual land taken might be worth $50,000, for example, the damage to the remainder property could easily exceed that amount if the property can no longer function effectively for its intended commercial use after the condemnation.
How South Carolina Law Calculates Just Compensation in Partial Takings
South Carolina usually follows the "before and after" rule for calculating just compensation in partial taking cases. Under this approach, the property is valued as a whole immediately before the taking, then valued again as a whole immediately after the taking (considering both the land taken by the condemnor and the project impacts to the remainder). The difference between these two values represents the total just compensation owed to the property owner.
This methodology ensures that all project impacts are captured in the compensation calculation, including severance damages. It prevents the condemning authority from simply paying for the land taken while ignoring the often-substantial harm to the owner’s remaining property.
Common Project Impacts That Cause Severance Damages
Access Impacts: Loss of direct access to a public road, relocation of driveways or access points, increased distance to access points, or reduced traffic counts on relocated access roads can all significantly diminish property value, particularly for commercial properties that depend on customer access and visibility.
Parcel Division and Irregularity: When a condemnation divides a property into two or more separate parcels, each smaller parcel may be worth less per acre than the original unified property. Irregular shapes, landlocked parcels, or remnants too small for practical development all reduce value.
Loss of Visibility and Exposure: For commercial properties, highway visibility and exposure to passing traffic can drive customer visits and sales. When a project reduces visibility—whether through taking of frontage, construction of sound walls or berms, or changes in road elevation—the remaining property loses value.
Operational Impacts: Projects can interfere with a property's ongoing operations by eliminating parking areas, loading docks, storage yards, or other functional areas. Even temporary construction impacts can harm businesses and reduce property value.
Environmental and Nuisance Impacts: Increased noise, vibration, air pollution, stormwater runoff, or flooding caused by the project can make the remaining property less desirable or usable and therefore less valuable.
The Condemning Authority's Incentive to Undervalue Severance Damages
Condemning authorities have a financial incentive to minimize severance damages. In many partial taking cases, the severance damages exceed the value of the land actually taken. Authorities often hire appraisers based on competitive bidding, resulting in a financial incentive for an appraiser to complete the work quickly or miss important information or downplay project impacts, assume the property that remains post-take can be easily adapted to new conditions, or fail to adequately account for loss of access, visibility, or functionality.
Property owners must be prepared to contest these under valuations with their own expert evidence demonstrating the true extent of project impacts and resulting damages to the remainder property.
Why Expert Analysis Is Essential
Properly quantifying damages to the remainder requires sophisticated appraisal analysis. Appraisers must understand the property's highest and best use, before-taking value and use, analyze how the project changes access, visibility, functionality, and marketability, and determine the after-taking value considering all these impacts. This often requires market data on comparable properties affected by similar projects, engineering analysis of access and drainage impacts, and traffic studies showing changes in exposure and accessibility.
How Bybee & Tibbals Maximizes Recovery for Damages to the Remainder
The attorneys at Bybee & Tibbals, LLC have extensive experience representing South Carolina property owners in partial taking cases involving significant severance damages. We work with highly qualified appraisal, engineering, and traffic experts to thoroughly analyze all project impacts and quantify their effect on property value. We understand how to present severance damage claims effectively to juries and have obtained substantial damage awards for clients whose remainder property was harmed by condemnation projects.
If a government entity is taking part of your property and you are concerned about impacts to your remaining land, contact Bybee & Tibbals for a consultation. We will evaluate the project's impacts, work with experts to determine the full extent of severance damages, and fight to ensure you receive complete just compensation for both the land taken and the harm to your remainder property.
