The Larnaca District Local Government Organisation (DLGO) has given owners of the Filanta apartment block near the port a deadline of days to begin addressing its dangerous condition, warning that evacuation orders will follow if they fail to act, DLGO president Angelos Hadjicharalambous said.
The Filanta block is the largest dangerous inhabited building on the DLGO’s list, comprising five blocks, 79 apartments and ten shops with more than 90 owners. Hundreds of people are estimated to live there, most of them foreign nationals, and some apartments have been illegally occupied. The DLGO began implementing its enforcement plan on Friday, starting with the Filanta as the most serious case.
The building came to wider attention on May 27, when a foreign national died and two others were injured after jumping from balconies to avoid arrest during an immigration operation.
Hadjicharalambous said DLGO officers had given owners three working days to take measures to address the dangerous condition of the building, with evacuation the next step if they did not comply. He said the deadline had technically passed but that some owners were making efforts, and that those who appointed an engineer and produced a remediation plan would be given additional time. If owners failed to comply, he said, the DLGO would proceed with evacuation and, if necessary, seek a court order.
Beyond the structural dangers, Hadjicharalambous said DLGO officers had found severe sanitary problems and multiple violations during their inspections. He said some apartments were housing as many as ten people and that sanitary conditions were dire. Officers also found residents illegally drawing electricity from one another.
“There are violations upon violations in this particular building,” Hadjicharalambous said.
He said the problems extended well beyond the DLGO’s remit and that multiple agencies needed to be involved: police to establish who was residing in the building, Larnaca Municipality for nuisance and sanitary issues, the Electromechanical Service and the EAC for electrical matters, and the Fire Service because emergency exits had been blocked.
In the coming days the DLGO will take similar action against other dangerous inhabited apartment blocks in Larnaca. According to information obtained by Phileleftheros, these include a second large block with 64 apartments and 12 shops. In total, the DLGO is preparing to send warnings to the owners of 30 dangerous inhabited buildings, 27 of which are apartment blocks.
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