120,000 home owners in Groningen to get compensation for quake property value cut

A café in the Groningen village of Zeerijp damaged by earthquakes. Photo: Graham Dockery
A condemned and shored-up cafe in Zeerijp. Photo: Graham Dockery

Some 120,000 home owners in Groningen province are entitled to financial compensation because the value of their property has gone down due to the earthquakes, the institute set up to assess the damage says.

The Instituut Mijnbouwschade Groningen will start formalising payments step by step from September 1, and home owners in Loppersum and Appingedam will be among the first to benefit.

In Loppersum, for example, property values have gone down by almost one fifth because of the quakes, the IMG said.

The new system replaces the previous one which was administered by gas extraction company NAM and only entitled home owners to money at the point at which they sold their home.

The damage is caused by the land settling after gas has been removed from massive fields under the province.The government is currently reducing the amount of gas which can be extracted because of the problems.

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