Vesting Orders 'Equity' Warning Sounded

During the week that a motion was being debated in the Stormont Assembly about the vesting of land, the Alliance party's Social Development Spokesperson Anna Lo has said it is essential that there is fairness for homeowners.

The MLA said that, in relation to the price they receive for their property there needs to be a reform of the current procedure for vesting houses.

"While it is really positive that we are seeing the regeneration of areas, we need to reform the current procedure for vesting property as it could leave a lot of homeowners in financial difficult.

"The level of reimbursement they get for their house could be much reduced from the amount they originally paid for it and this will leave them in negative equity," she said.

"Those affected could be left in serious debt to their bank and I believe that this is totally unfair. We need to look at how we ensure they get a genuinely fair deal.

"Also landlords are affected because they are losing out financially because of vesting. As the rental income from their properties can often be their livelihood they are also being put in an extremely difficult position too.

"It also takes a long time for money from vesting to come through and I have real concerns about this too. We need to make the system fairer and I hope this debate will help in doing this."

The comments come after the South Belfast Sinn Fein MLA Alex Maskey submitted the private member's motion to the Assembly calling on the Social Development Minister and the Minister for Finance and Personnel to bring forward these proposals to ensure that homeowners living in the predominantly loyalist area will be protected from negative equity and increased debt following the vesting of land.

See: Vested Village 'Negative Equity' Highlighted

(BMcC/KMcA)