4th July, 2022.
Flags are being banned from new-build housing developments across the North of Ireland due to legal text increasingly being inserted into the small print of homeowner contracts.
Private developers are more commonly including in transfer deeds a clause that prevents buyers from displaying flags or putting up flag poles, property experts told Beflast Live.
Homeowners could face legal action if they breach the restrictive covenant, which warns them "not to affix on the exterior of the premises or display anywhere on the premises any flag or flag pole".
An estate agent said property developers "want to get the best prices for their houses" by ensuring they are "flag-free".
Flags and emblems remain contentious in the North of Ireland's divided communities, with Stormont politicians grappling with disputes for many years but failing to find consensus.
A long-delayed £800,000 Stormont report aimed at addressing cultural divisions was published last December but failed to reach agreement on dealing with many issues over flags.
Property solicitor Lauren Burns, a partner at Wilson Nesbitt, said the flags clause is one of many restrictive covenants that can be included in transfer deeds.
"The developer wants the development to look a certain way and that's one of the covenants they will put in to ensure it continues to look a specific way," she said.
Other covenants can include restrictions on what colour homeowners can paint their house and where they are permitted to install a TV satellite dish.
She added: "These are all for the developer to keep a development looking a certain way, particularly where a developer is doing a development in phases.
Ms Burns, who has worked at the law firm for 18 years, said the flags covenant has been around "for a while" but added: "Certainly I have noticed it more of late.
"It's certainly in the newer developments at the moment. Out of all the new developments I would say it's in a least half of them."
Ms Burns said once a developer finishes a project they would usually pass what title they have left to a management company, which would be tasked with handling matters such as upholding covenants and maintaining shared grass areas within the development.
She said a breach of a covenant could eventually lead to court action being pursued, but cases rarely go that far.
Independent unionist councillor Paul Berry (Pictured above), who works as an estate agent in Tandragee, Co Armagh, said he was aware of the flags covenant cropping up mainly in the wider Belfast area.
He said that property developers "want to get the best prices for their houses".
"They're trying to send out a directive that it's flag-free, that it's not one side of the community or the other - that this is a housing development for everybody."
However, asked whether flags in an area reduce property prices, Mr Berry said: "I have never experienced it. People don't mention it."
He also questioned how the restrictive covenant would be enforced.
"Do management companies want to get involved in that? My experience of management companies is it's hard enough to get them to cut grass," he said.
Prof Dominic Bryan, who co-chaired Stormont's Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition, said he was not aware of the details of the flags covenants on some private properties.
However, he said that some housing associations in Northern Ireland "have tried to develop areas where the shared nature means restricting displays".
The flags commission looked at disputes over flags on lampposts and on public buildings but it was unable to reach a clear consensus on a way forward.
With many thanks to: Belfast Live and Brendan Hughes Politicial reporter for the original publication.
Follow these links to find out more on this story: The 'staggering' cost to the public purse cleaning-up after 'Hatefest' and the 12th of July bonfires.
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