It has been declared that people owning homes in Northern Ireland who are threatened with losing their homes can avail of free legal advice.
Housing Rights Service experts have been enlisted to help people facing home recovery procedures when their cases get to the courts. This move has been approved by Mr. David Ford, the Justice Minister and has set aside an amount of 60,000 pounds for the same.
The initiative comes soon after the declaration that was made the previous summer by Mr. Nelson McCausland the Social Development Minister and would be financing more than 500,000 pounds for the Mortgage Debt Advice Service to aid owners of properties in their backlog payments. Help the people in all the proceedings in the High Court.
The money that has been approved for the purpose would be enough to pay for two experts to offer counsel and to support them in all the court procedures concerning their mortgage recovery in cases where persons are faced with the threats of having to give up their homes. The programme would cover County Court eviction that also due to take place.
The Chancery Division of the high Court the previous year received a total of 3,588 applications for mortgage. On the whole 1,775 orders for recovery had been made.
Mr. Ford stated that he was of the firm belief that the facility offered by the Housing Right Service would be significantly helpful in backing some of the most susceptible home owners in the society.
