Victoria Square apartments owners to get rates refund

Owners of the defective Victoria Square apartments in Belfast will “no longer be liable for rates” and are to be issued with a refund.

Land & Property Services (LPS) said on Wednesday that the money will be refunded for rates paid since April 2019.

It is believed that the rates refund for the city centre apartment block will be around £170,000 with the rates arrears estimated to be £396,000.

On Wednesday, its also emerged that urgent legal advice on changing legislation on defective buildings in the north is being sought following the controversy.

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Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said her DUP colleague and Communities Minister Gordon Lyons was “actively looking” at the potential for changing the law and would be reporting back to executive colleagues “very shortly”.

Residents of the apartment complex had to leave the premises in 2019 when structural issues were found.

However, despite being unable to live there, residents had to continue to pay rates and some other bills.

A charity, Ulster Garden Villages, owns 54 of the 91 apartments in Victoria Square. The remaining properties are owned by individuals.

The valuation of the properties was recently reviewed by LPS and on Wednesday it was confirmed that the agency “no longer considers it reasonable from a rating perspective to conclude the properties are rateable and has determined the impacted properties can now be removed from the valuation list”.

Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald said: “The owners of the Victoria Square Apartments have endured significant turmoil having found themselves in a difficult situation through no fault of their own.

“I have been determined to find a way forward in respect of rates for the Victoria Square Apartment ratepayers.

“I’m now able to announce that Land & Property Services will be writing to the residents impacted to inform them there will be no further rate bills, rates paid will be refunded, rate arrears will no longer be pursued and any court action will be ceased.

“I hope this positive outcome will provide some relief to the residents.”

Ms Little-Pengelly also said that at last week’s Executive meeting, Ms Archibald and Mr Lyons were tasked with undertaking further work on the issue and reporting back “urgently” to ministerial colleagues.

“It will, as we understand it, require legislative change,” she told PA.

“The minister for communities is actively looking at this at the moment, he’s taking legal advice about that.

“He’s very conscious of the timescales on this.

“So we are positive that we will have that detailed advice to the Executive and to us very, very shortly in terms of what action we can take to support those impacted by this unjustness.”