Kieran McCarthy MLA said: “For too long some homeowners have had to pay money to some unscrupulous agents who do not keep up with maintenance or cleaning in housing developments. My Assembly motion is about strengthening the rights of apartment and house owners who pay a management agent to maintain shared areas around their home.
“We want to put the power in the hands of the people; people who own apartments and homes in a shared development should be allowed to manage or run this type of operation themselves.
“Good management agents want to strong legislation on this to protect the credibility of their profession. There are many management agents that do a great job but there are a small number who charge owners massive fees and do little or no work for them.
“This is about delivering democracy it its most basic level. We want to give people the chance to make their own decisions and protect them from the rogue management agents out there.
“An Assembly question I recently put revealed that there are over 40,000 private apartments in Northern Ireland and anyone who lives in one could be susceptible to this problem. I want to do all I can to protect people regarding this issue.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
Here is the Alliance motion to be debated in the Assembly on Monday 9 November,
Multi-unit Development Management Company Reform
That this Assembly notes that the regulations on multi-unit development management companies are not currently adequate; notes that Northern Ireland has fallen behind the rest of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in legislating on this issue; and calls on the Executive to reform the regulations along similar lines to those in operation in neighbouring jurisdictions.
[Mr K McCarthy, Mr D Ford]