The demolition of a dilapidated house in Larnaca whose wall and roof partially collapsed last Monday has been completed, the President of the Larnaca District Local Government Organisation (DLGO), Angelos Hadjicharalambous, has said.
Demolition of the property — where three women had been living — began on Thursday and was completed on Friday. Hadjicharalambous said the women got out in time and no one was hurt.
A second property in the Sotiros area, whose roof collapsed last week, will be demolished next week. The adjacent building will also be torn down — a structure that appeared neither in records handed to the DLGO by Larnaca Municipality nor in a recent visual inspection of potentially dangerous buildings carried out by private consultants and DLGO officials. That inspection has since led to an updated register of 25 potentially dangerous buildings across the district.
Faneromeni block
Forty residents of a dilapidated apartment block in the Faneromeni area evacuated their flats after the DLGO posted a notice on May 20 giving them three days to leave. All have since found alternative accommodation, Hadjicharalambous said, but the building’s owners have not sealed it off.
The DLGO will now move to seal and fence the building in cooperation with the owners. Hadjicharalambous said the organisation also intends to pursue legal measures to obtain a court order allowing the DLGO to take possession of the building if owners fail to act. Asked whether legal proceedings might take too long, he said the organisation would use that process to give owners time to comply while simultaneously seeking a court order as a fallback.
Chrysopolitissa block
On Friday, the DLGO sent a letter to the owners of a second apartment block in the Chrysopolitissa area. Hadjicharalambous said residents of that building will not be asked to evacuate at this stage. Owners have been given one week to take the necessary steps to address the building’s safety risks.
Four more buildings
Letters will go out next week to the owners of four further apartment blocks. One of them is the building from whose balconies three foreign nationals jumped on Wednesday morning to avoid a check by the Immigration and Aliens Service, an incident in which a 34-year-old from the Congo lost his life.
Hadjicharalambous said all building owners bear responsibility for ensuring their properties are safe and must carry out the necessary repairs. He added that owners should also know who is living in their flats, which in most cases are rented out.
Among the measures available to the DLGO, he said, is an administrative fine of €20,000, which the organisation intends to impose where required. The DLGO is also working closely with the police, the fire service, and Larnaca Municipality, and will call on their assistance where needed to ensure public safety.
(information from CNA)
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