You think the house you lived in all your life and paid for is yours?
Well your wrong, if a private company wanted to knock down your house and build a bar, church or basketball court where your home stands they can.
They will force you to sell your house for the amount THEY WANT TO GIVE YOU. And if you don’t OBEY you will be jailed.
Its called Eminent domain for example read this paper:
Ratner's Bid Likely to Draw Lawsuits
By Luis Perez
Staff Writer
January 16, 2004
If all promises are kept, a developer's bid to build a 19,000-seat basketball arena in Downtown Brooklyn would score multiple lawsuits for the city.
A community group and several co-op owners have vowed to file suits against the plan, which would use eminent domain to make way for the sweeping, Frank Gehry-designed complex at the crossroads of Brooklyn.
The suits, several experts said, may amount to an act of desperation — tantamount to an attempt to score at the buzzer from half-court.
"These projects are very rarely stopped by a challenged eminent domain proceeding," said Shi-Ling Hsu, associate professor of real estate law at George Washington University Law School.
Eminent domain is used by governments to seize property when it is in the "public good." Property owners typically receive compensation, but usually below market rates.
Hsu noted that court interpretation of "public use" is very flexible and has been given to private interests in most states.
In a rare case, a court in Massachusetts struck down a much-opposed eminent domain order in February 2002, stopping construction of a minor-league baseball stadium atop a condemned shopping plaza, said Dana Berliner, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice in Washington, D.C.
"Stadium projects, when they fail, typically are fought outside of court," noted Berliner, adding, "New York has not been very sympathetic to people who have complained about this."
The off-court battle began as soon as developer Bruce Ratner's plan to buy the New Jersey Nets and move them to a site at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues was made public.
The $2.5 billion project, which has the support of city and state elected officials, includes a sprawling retail and apartment complex. It would require the Empire State Development Corporation to condemn about 70 homes on the six blocks around the site.
Opponents of the project say it is not a "public use" because Ratner is a private developer and the arena would charge admission. But the developer has said the arena will have round-the-clock, publicly accessible recreation areas, as well as housing.
Patti Hagan, the leader of the Prospect Heights Action Coalition, which has opposed the plan since August, has vowed to show up for the court fight. Several co-op owners also said they are discussing their plans with lawyers.
A spokeswoman for Ratner declined to comment.
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/brooklyn/nyc-reax0116,0,1039489.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-brooklyn
