Damaged or Impaired Property
When a property suffers a decline in value due to physical damage, a legal restriction or condition, a stigma, or any other negative event or discovery, an appraisal is often needed to quantify that impact on value.
An impairment can range from minor physical damage to a new highway through a neighborhood to a crime or death on site to mudslides, fires and environmental contamination. Essentially, any event that occurs, or is discovered, that negatively impacts value results in impaired property.
- Natural disaster
- Fire or other accident on site
- Discovery of construction defects
- Discovery of undisclosed defects or other issues that impact value (failure to disclose)
- Discovery of an encroachment or atypical easement or other title defect
- The imposition of a restriction on the use or sale of a specific property
- Eminent domain partial taking by a government agency
- Read more about Eminent Domain and Condemnation.
- New nearby noise or nuisance
- A nearby incident or disaster, or another negative externality
- Crime or notorious incident on site or nearby
Ashworth Appraisal Services has extensive experience in valuing impaired property, including appraisal reports for insurance claims, legal matters due to construction defects and to title defects, and for estimating impact due to natural disasters.
In some cases, a diminution in value appraisal is needed. This requires a report that concludes a value of the property immediately before the event or discovery, and a value immediately afterward, the difference between the two being the diminution in value. It is sometimes very challenging to locate data to arrive at the post-event value, for example, after a natural disaster. Dozens of appraisals have been completed in which the post-event value reflects property that was completely engulfed by wildfire.
John has been great to work with on complex litigation matters. He provides detailed reports on complicated issues involving diminution in value, in failure to disclose claims, and stigma damages. John’s litigation support has been a valuable tool in resolving several of my litigation matters. He is always the first person I recommend to anybody looking for a valuation expert.