Eyford Partners sponsored the British Columbia Expropriation Association’s Mid-Year Dinner Meeting

On 05 June 2019, Eyford Partners sponsored the British Columbia Expropriation Association’s Mid-Year Dinner Meeting . Eyford Partners’ municipal and expropriation lawyers attended the social and educational seminar, which included a presentation on Tanex Industries Ltd. v. Greater Vancouver Water District, 2019 BCSC 74. That recent case confirmed that compensation paid under the Expropriation Act should take into account environmental impairment and any resulting impact on a property’s market value.  The case raised several interesting issues, including the claimant’s concern that an expropriated owner would bear the cost of proposed remediation through a deduction in expropriation compensation, while simultaneously losing the ability to claim-over against a party responsible for the contamination under the Environmental Management Act.  The court left the claim-over question for another day, but affirmed an expropriating authority’s right to deduct from market value compensation the remediation cost associated with achieving the property’s highest and best use (the basis of fair market value).