by Linda Straker
- Government has had complaints from 2 owners of properties in Moliniere project area
- Government will be engaging properties and homeowners
- Affected owners will receive compensation based on comparative measures
Infrastructure Minister Dennis Cornwall has warned that home and property owners within the Moliniere Slippage Project whose properties were affected by the 2019 land slippage, and those who will be affected by work to be done, will receive compensation based on comparative measures.
In an interview with the Government Information Service (GIS), Cornwall said, “Valuating properties will be done by comparative measures. It is looking at other valuations done on properties that were sold in the area, and that will give us the best guide as to where the property values could be targeted and so on.”
“You could not use the income value because it’s not an income-generating scenario, and other measures that are also available will not be applicable for that situation. Anyone who believes you can use any other method from the comparison method to determine the value of the properties will be misguided,” said Cornwall after the sod-turning ceremony to signal the start of work on the project.
“I also want to make it clear that having had the situation where the land slipped, and some of the houses got damaged, it is not practical to see a damaged property and decide it is going to be valued as if it was a property standing there in its full glory. It will not be that case and therefore, we have to take all those into consideration,” said the Infrastructure Minister.
“One could even argue that there was no road to get to that value, in a market situation where you have to take everything into consideration in place where you have a willing buyer and a willing seller. I don’t think somebody will buy a property in an area where there is no road or there is no viability,” he said, calling for residents who will receive compensation to be thankful. “Therefore, the persons living in that area should understand that the sacrifice the government will make, to basically make them look good, is one that they should cherish and not run away from it and so on.”
Cornwall confirmed that Government has had complaints from 2 owners of properties in the Moliniere project area that the Government started the project without compensating them. “I also want to just send this warning to people, that not because you have a piece of property in that location that you should go ahead and build while ignoring planning permission because the land on which we are talking about is under rehabilitation at the moment, is really a gravel heap,” he said.
“If you did not take into consideration the fact that it was a gravel heap and you ignored all planning permission, and you went ahead and built, and today the consequences are what they are, in a sense the road is falling apart, it could be considered an act of God. I think that persons who have owned properties they should understand that even the insurance companies may or may not be able to at least compensate them if they were not insured in the first place,” said Cornwall.
Despite the challenges, Cornwall says that the Government will be engaging properties and homeowners in the area to dialogue with them and come to “some kind of amicable” solution to the problem.