If a project or displacing activity has received or will receive federal financial assistance as defined in section 316.1, an acquiring agency shall be guided by the following policies:
1. Every reasonable effort shall be made to acquire expeditiously real property by negotiation.
2. Real property shall be appraised as required by section 6B.45 before the initiation of negotiations, and the owner or the owner's designated representative shall be given an opportunity to accompany at least one appraiser of the acquiring agency during an inspection of the property, except that the state department of transportation may prescribe a procedure to waive the appraisal in cases involving the acquisition of property with a low fair market value.
3. Before the initiation of negotiations for real property, the acquiring agency shall establish an amount which it believes to be just compensation for the real property, and shall make a prompt offer to acquire the property for the full amount established by the agency. In no event shall the amount be less than the agency's approved appraisal of the fair market value of the property.
4. The construction or development of a public improvement shall be so scheduled that, to the greatest extent practicable, no person lawfully occupying real property shall be required to move from a dwelling or to move the person's business or farm operation without at least ninety days' written notice of the date by which the move is required.
5. If an owner or tenant is permitted to occupy the real property acquired on a rental basis for a short term or for a period subject to termination on short notice, the amount of rent required shall not exceed the fair rental value of the property to a short-term occupier.
6. In no event shall the time of condemnation be advanced, or negotiations or condemnation and the deposit of funds in court for the use of the owner be deferred, or any other coercive action be taken to compel an agreement on the price to be paid for the property.
7. If an interest in real property is to be acquired by exercise of the power of eminent domain, formal condemnation proceedings shall be instituted. The acquiring agency shall not intentionally make it necessary for an owner to institute legal proceedings to prove the fact of the taking of the owner's real property.
8. If the acquisition of only a portion of property would leave the owner with an uneconomical remnant, the head of the agency concerned shall offer to acquire that remnant. For the purposes of this chapter, an "uneconomical remnant" is a parcel of real property in which the owner is left with an interest after the partial acquisition of the owner's property, where the head of the agency concerned determines that the parcel has little or no value or utility to the owner.
9. A person whose real property is being acquired in accordance with this chapter, after the person has been fully informed of the person's right to receive just compensation for the property, may donate the property, any part of the property, any interest in the property, or any compensation paid for it to any agency as the person may determine.
10. As soon as practicable after the date of payment of the purchase price or the date of deposit in court of funds to satisfy the award of compensation in a condemnation proceeding to acquire real property, whichever is earlier, the acquiring agency shall reimburse the owner, to the extent the acquiring agency deems fair and reasonable, for expenses the owner necessarily incurred for all of the following:
a. Recording fees, transfer taxes, and similar expenses incidental to conveying the real property to the acquiring agency.
b. Penalty costs for full or partial prepayment of any preexisting recorded mortgage entered into in good faith encumbering the real property.
Payments and expenditures under this subsection are incident to and arise out of the program or project for which the acquisition activity takes place. Such payments and expenditures may be made from the funds made available for the program or project.
A person aggrieved by a determination as to the eligibility for or amount of a reimbursement may have the matter reviewed in accordance with section 316.9.
11. An owner shall not be required to surrender possession of real property before the acquiring agency concerned pays the agreed purchase price.
89 Acts, ch 20, § 19
CS89, § 472.54
C93, § 6B.54
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