§ 1263.020.Date Right to Compensation Deemed to Have Accrued

This section answers a timing question that matters for interest calculations and for other rights tied to accrual: when does the owner's right to compensation begin? The default answer is the date the plaintiff files the complaint that starts the eminent domain proceeding.

That default gives way whenever another statute says otherwise. Section 1263.015, for instance, lets the owner and public entity agree to their own payment arrangement measured from that same accrual date, and other provisions elsewhere in this title can shift the date for their own purposes. But absent one of those exceptions, filing the complaint is the moment the clock starts.