Joan thought she had found her forever home. Then a letter arrived

When Joan and Marc Hendel moved into their new home, they thought it was where they’d while away their retirement years.

Almost two years ago, in December 2023, they bought a plot of land in Bourne, a small town in the sought after Cape Cod peninsula of Massachusetts in the US. 

It was a homecoming for the pair, who had spent years living interstate and yearned to be closer to family, Realtor.com reported. 

The plan was to build a modest blue weatherboard home on the plot they could retire into.

But one month after they moved in this year, the Hendels received a letter from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation informing them the house would be demolished to make way for a new bridge. 

“We were lost for words,” Joan told Realtor.com. 

“We said nothing. We have an excellent marriage, we communicate well, but that day, not at all. We didn’t know what to do.”

For Bourne locals, the news was not a surprise. There had been discussions about expanding the Sagamore Bridge for decades. 

But for the Hendels, they claim they were left out of the loop.

“No one told us. Not our realtor, not the person who sold to us. Not the town of Bourne that issued our building permit,” Marc told the Wall Street Journal. 

The vendor and real estate agent who sold the Hendels the property insisted the couple knew there was the potential for a compulsory acquisition order. 

“Prior to the Hendel’s [sic] purchasing the land in 2023, we informed the buyer’s agent of the potential risk and confirmed the buyer’s agent had informed them,” The Journal quoted an email statement from the listing agent as saying.

The Hendels are one of 13 households whose land will be acquired to make way for the new Sagamore Bridge. 

The project is estimated to cost $US2.4 billion ($3.7 billion) and will replace an existing 90-year-old bridge the Massachusetts government has described as “functionally obsolete”. 

The government said it will fully compensate all households for the loss of their home and moving expenses. 

Compulsory acquisition is not just a US issue – it affects Australian households too. 

In Australia, state and federal governments are allowed to take possession of private properties to build roads, hospitals or other public infrastructure. 

In some states, like Victoria, it is possible to check whether there is a Public Acquisition Overlay (PAO) on a property prior to purchase. 

Househunters can also call their local council to check whether there are major public works in the plans before signing a contract.