Good causes missing out on £500k a year due to Victoria Square apartments legal wrangle

Registered charity Ulster Garden Villages (UGV), which owns 54 of the 91 Belfast city centre properties affected by structural defects, said the lost revenue would have been used for “philanthropic purposes" at a time when that support has been needed “more than ever”.

Prior to the apartments being vacated in 2019, UGV was providing around £1 million funding for various philanthropic and charitable projects – including those related to health, education, arts and heritage – across Northern Ireland.

Earlier this week a judge at Belfast’s HIgh Court said a claim against the apartment developers and architects could not proceed as a six-year time limit had elapsed.

In a statement, the UGV responded to the judgement saying: “First and foremost, UGV recognises that this issue has been of a huge, personal and financial stress to the individual property owners.

"Our pressures and stresses are different but nonetheless it has still had an impact across Northern Ireland. We have had and will now continue to have an income loss of approx. £500,000 per annum that would have been used for philanthropic purposes supporting charities across NI at a time when, given the challenges of the past few years, that support has been needed more than ever.”

The statement added: “We are hopeful that some good comes from this case and that legislative amendments can be secured that offer a legal remedy to a wider range of property owners”.