Kinder Morgan ordered to pay Hill Country landowner nearly $250,000 in property damages

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle by  Sergio Chapa Aug. 8, 2019

A real state commission overseeing land condemnation issues has ordered Houston pipeline operator Kinder Morgan to pay a Hill Country landowner nearly $250,000 in property damages.

In a Thursday morning decision, the three-member panel of the panel of Blanco County Special Commissioners ordered Kinder Morgan to pay landowner Matthew Walsh $233,500 in damages for the company's proposed Permian Highway Pipeline project.

A company appraisal  valued the 50-foot easement on Walsh's land at $16,707 but the Blanco landowner got legal help from the Texas Real Estate Advocacy and Defense Coalition and filed a claim stating that the overall damage to the appraised value of his 53-acre property was $261,663. Walsh claimed the pipeline project would delay building a home on the property and selling the land in the future.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Kinder-Morgan-ordered-to-pay-Hill-Country-14291132.php

[IsailedawayfromFR]

This is the sort of thing that the recent eminent domain legislation proposed in the Legislature was supposed to mitigate:  landowners who are getting taken advantage of by companies who can condemn land for 'public purposes'.  Unfortunately, lawmakers succumbed to the companies instead of landowners.

I myself had the same thing happen when a pipeline company came through my property, as the 'condemnation' amount offered was 1/10 of what it should have been.  I settled for something far less after the company pressured me.

The recourse should be a more proper arms-length rather than bullying transaction as in Texas the company holds most of the cards so the property owner must hire a lawyer to set things right.

See prior thread.  http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,367077.msg2001334.html#msg2001334