Filenews 14 July 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
With the first priority being public safety, the Municipality of Paphos proceeds to take measures, within its responsibilities set by the legislation for the removal of the risk of buildings and the creation of an effective and functional legislative framework, for the control of the suitability of buildings in terms of static adequacy.
In its meeting the day before yesterday, the Municipal Council carried out a thorough examination of the situation in the city in relation to dangerous buildings in light of the incidents of collapse of parts of private property buildings on Nicou Antoniadi Street and Poseidonos Avenue, by the Municipal Bathrooms. Assessing the technical data put before it and based on the advice of the legal associates of the Municipality, the Council decided to take specific measures with the most urgent procedure possible in relation to nine cases of buildings that in the last three years have presented examples of danger and / or unsuitability in terms of use and habitation.
For these cases, measures have been launched that fall under the provisions of the Municipalities Law and the Regulation of Roads and Buildings Law, which provide, inter alia, in case of non-compliance of the owners involved, for the imposition of a one-off administrative fine of up to €10,000 and a fine of up to €200 for each day of continued non-compliance. For three of the above mentioned cases, the issuance of a decree for the evacuation of buildings is promoted, while for five of them a process of removing the risk is underway during the last 3-18 months in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation of Roads and Buildings Law.
Furthermore, the Council decided that the Municipality should request the Union of Cyprus Municipalities to undertake an effort to amend the incomplete and de facto ineffective legislation governing the control of public use of buildings in order to institutionalize the regular and strict control of the suitability of buildings after a specific limit (eg 30 years and more) with the request to obtain a certificate of suitability at regular intervals.
With the aim of accelerating and intensifying the control of the suitability of old buildings that present obvious external problems, it was decided to strengthen the Department of Technical Services with a Technical Services Officer under the status of a fixed-term employee for 24 months, in the specialty of Civil Engineering. To this end, the relevant approval was requested by the co-competent Ministries of Interior and Finance in the form of urgency.
The Municipality of Paphos invites the owners of buildings within its administrative boundaries to rise to the occasion and acting with a sense of responsibility proceed themselves to the technical inspection of their buildings and the required maintenance and repair works because this is dictated by public safety but also by the image and reputation of the city. The owners should be aware that for accidents that are likely to occur in their buildings, they may have to pay tens of thousands of euros in compensation as the culprits.
The Municipality also calls on the owners of such buildings to end the unbridled exploitation of immigrants (asylum seekers, foreign workers) and other persons through the rental of unsuitable, in many respects, premises resulting in most of the time creating overcrowding and a real problem of public health and safety.
At the same time, the Municipality calls on the State to urgently define a new mechanism through which to end the phenomenon of subsidizing rents in buildings that are proven to be unsuitable and / or dangerous for human living and / or are not licensed in accordance with the legislation.
