Westconnex has proposed the compulsory acquisition of property 68-72 Lilyfield Road in Rozelle. Credit:Katherine Griffiths That frustration is spilling over into the courts. Since 2012 the value of court cases – expressed as a potential liability in the agency's financial statements – has increased from $52 million to almost $658.9 million last year. An RMS spokeswoman said the rise was in part due to an increasing number of infrastructure projects in recent years. She said 84 per cent of acquisitions in the past financial year were mutually agreed without compulsory acquisition and that the agency was defending 31 court cases. "Roads and Maritime Services understands property acquisition is a sensitive issue and works closely with affected property owners," she said.

Westconnex. Credit:Sydney Motorway Corporation Tony Debenham, from Gillespie Cranes in Rozelle, said he was offered more than $50 million for his commercial site from a property company just months before RMS approached him with a compulsory acquisition value of $13 million. RMS is building the third stage of the WestConnex project in Rozelle, which will provide a link between the M4 and M5 motorways. "The offer they have given us is just absurd, it is at least 100 per cent below what we could sell it for as an industrial property," he said. On the same road as Gillespie Cranes, property company The Desane Group has also fought against RMS's valuation of its 5200-square metre site.

The company believes the site is worth upwards of $100 million, despite being offered $18.4 million by RMS. The company is challenging the valuation in the Supreme Court. There are strict rules surrounding compulsory property acquisitions. A compensation offer must reflect what a "willing but not anxious buyer" is prepared to pay. Development proposals or rezoning applications can also influence property prices. Desane and Gillespie were among a number of Rozelle landowners that made rezoning submissions to the Department of Planning after the WestConnex project was announced, but before detailed plans were released to the public. The submissions had the potential to significantly increase the value of the properties.

An email from inside RMS showed staff at both WestConnex and RMS were aware of the submissions. "Basically the sooner we are out there talking to the affected owners & tenants the better!" a senior RMS staff member said in an email discussing the submissions. The emails also show RMS reached out to the Department of Planning to find out when they would respond to the rezoning submissions. "I asked that he let me know before he responded but that we were hopeful of having our announcement before then & that would trigger a meeting request from RMS to the owners," the staff member said in the email. RMS did not respond to questions on the email. The agency said disputes over property valuations are determined by the Valuer-General or the Land and Environment Court.

More than 70 per cent of compulsory acquisition cases that go to the Land and Environment Court are settled before they reach a hearing, according to a 2016 report by the NSW Parliamentary Research Service. The report looked at 10 cases which did proceed to hearing and found seven resulted in a higher compensation offer which was on average about a third more than the original sum. "In most of the relatively few compulsory acquisition cases that were determined at hearing since 2007, the court's determination of market value was higher than the offer made to the property owner," the report found. Paul Waterhouse, chairman of the Australian Valuers Institute, said in most cases RMS is more than fair in their property valuations, but determining future value of a property remains a grey area. "They are too generous, they give away too much of our taxpayers' money," he said.

"The question is should the client be allowed to have any future value of that property – if the future is not that far away, we tend to argue they should be paid for it."