Victoria Square apartments: Owner 'had to ask parents to pay bills'

A homeowner who had to leave his flat due to building defects has said his elderly parents are using up their life savings to help pay his housing bills.

Andy Johnston was among owners forced to vacate Victoria Square apartments in Belfast in 2019 because of safety fears about the structure of the building.

He said he was put "out on the street" and had to move into his parents' home.

Stormont ministers say they are committed to helping by changing laws at the "earliest opportunity".

It comes after several ministers met on Tuesday to discuss the issue.

For the past five years, Mr Johnston mother and father have paid the mortgage, rates and maintenance charges for his flat.

"My parents are both pensioners," Mr Johnston told the BBC's Nolan Show.

"This is their money that they've worked for all their life, blown up in smoke at the minute."

He is one of several apartment owners who have spoken out about the mess their finances have been left in since they were ordered to leave the building.

The high-rise block containing 91 apartments was completed in 2008.

However, the builders - Farrans and Gilbert Ash - along with architects involved in the building, have denied any liability for the structural defects.

The apartment owners tried to claim compensation through the courts, but their case was struck out last week because it was not taken within six years of the building being completed.

Mr Johnston was in his late 20s when he moved into his Victoria Square apartment in 2012.

"This was my first home and it was absolutely perfect at the time," he said.

He chose a property in central Belfast because he does not drive and wanted to be close to his place of work.

But by April 2019, cracks had started appearing in the walls of the building.

At that time, residents were told to vacate their apartments for "immediately for safety reasons" due to "a serious structural issue".

Mr Johnston was given about 15 minutes to gather any belongings he would need during what owners were initially told would be a short evacuation.

"You fill a bag and you leave. Like, you're out on the street," he explained.

Although he was able to move back into his family home outside Belfast, he was faced with the extra cost of commuting into the city and soon needed his parents' help to pay the mounting bills from Victoria Square.

"Not only was I living with them, I was in their home, but I was saying: 'Look I can't afford everything that I'm doing here', Mr Johnson said.

"Going to your pensioner parents, where roles should really be reversed, and saying: 'Can you take this off my shoulders guys because I can't do it?'

"I don't have the means to do this anymore."

He was in his early 30s at the time of the evacuation and his mother and father were both in ill health.

Now aged 37, and living in a new property, he is still relying on his parents for the upkeep of a Victoria Square apartment that he cannot even enter.

"That was five years ago, today nothing has changed. They're still paying those bills, they're still paying the rates for services that we're not using.

"They're paying the maintenance fee for a building that we can't get into.

"They're paying a mortgage - we can't sell, we can't rent, you know?"

The case was taken to the High Court on behalf of 30 private residents as well as the charity Ulster Garden Villages, which owns 54 of the 91 apartments.

But in Northern Ireland, such compensation claims must be made within six years of a building being completed.

There have been calls for the law to be brought in line with England and Wales, where the time limit is 30 years.

Initially, there was some confusion over which Stormont department held responsibility for this issue, following calls by owners of the Victoria Square apartments for politicians to act.

But last week, Minister for Communities Gordon Lyons confirmed his department would take on responsibility.

His department is responsible for residential building safety under its housing remit.

It has previously said it anticipated a new Building Safety Act was "likely to be required for Northern Ireland", matching the legislation that came into force in England and Wales in 2022.

On Tuesday, Mr Lyons met Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald and Agriculture and Environment Minister Andrew Muir to discuss the issues with the flats.

The ministers said they are "committed to working together" to help and support the residents during "what is a very distressing time".

A joint statement said there are complex matters to consider, but legislation to address defective buildings would be brought forward "at the earliest opportunity".

Ms Archibald met Land and Property Services last week to discuss rates on the apartments deemed defective.

Despite being unable to return to their properties, owners have continued having to pay rates, buildings insurance, a service charge, and in some cases like Mr Johnston's, mortgage payments.

The ministers said they have agreed to work to see if Land and Property Services can be provided with the necessary evidence in order to review the current and historic rates liability.

"We are united with the single focus of supporting the residents," they said in their joint statement.

The legislation that covers the issue is the Defective Premises (NI) Order 1975.

It is not clear how long it could take to change the law, but there is widespread support among political parties for this to happen.

The government in England passed legislation in 2022 to extend the time limit from six years to 30, as part of its Building Safety Act.

At that time, Stormont's devolved government had collapsed.