Property rights under the new expropriation regime

Under the Expropriation Act (LCE) adopted in December 2023, the suspension of expropriation proceedings is no longer automatic when a public body’s right to expropriate is challenged.

The authors analyze the consequences of this major legislative change on the protection of property rights in Quebec. According to them, there is now a risk that a former expropriated owner—namely, a person who has obtained a judgment declaring their expropriation illegal—may nonetheless remain expropriated.

This paradoxical situation would arise when the expropriated property ends up in the hands of a third party acting in good faith, or of a third party who significantly alters or modifies it before a judgment is rendered on the merits of the challenge to the expropriation proceedings. In such circumstances, since restitution of the property in kind would be impossible, the former owner would, in practice, remain expropriated.

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