Providing owners of real estate taken through eminent domain by school districts, or sold under threat of eminent domain, the opportunity to purchase the real estate back when it is not put to intended public use.

Former owners gain school property buyback rights

Beginning July 27, 2025, Washington law gives former property owners a chance to buy back property acquired by school districts. It covers property taken through eminent domain or bought without a court judgment after written notice threatening condemnation. Districts must give owners a written statement of the planned use at acquisition or within a reasonable time afterward. A buyback offer is required before a district sells, transfers, or uses the property for something other than school facilities or additional grounds for existing school facilities, when a trigger below applies. Triggers include canceling the planned public use before it starts, making no actual progress within 10 years after acquisition, or no longer needing the property for that use or a substantially similar one. Another trigger applies more than one year after acquisition, but only when all four conditions hold: no voter or state funding was requested or submitted to voters; no permit application was submitted; no additional parcels need to be assembled or acquired; and the project is absent from the district's six-year capital facilities plan. The district must send the offer by certified mail to former owners or their heirs, assigns, or successors. The price equals the district's original condemnation compensation or purchase price, and recipients have 60 days after receipt to accept in writing. The right ends upon first use for school facilities or grounds, 15 years after acquisition, or written waiver. Owners who requested condemnation qualify only if the district first sent written notice of its intent to condemn. The district satisfies its offer duty by making a good-faith, reasonably diligent effort to identify everyone entitled to notice and mailing offers to their last known addresses.