The Limassol District Local Government Organisation (DLGO) is moving to court to secure an evacuation order for the Seagate apartment block in the tourist area of Germasogeia after a three-day deadline for residents to leave expired at midnight on Monday.
DLGO Limassol president Yiannis Tsouloftas told Phileleftheros that the deadline had expired and that the next steps were now legal in nature.
He said the DLGO had assigned the case to a law firm in Limassol to proceed with a court application for an evacuation order for the building, which has been classified as dangerous.
According to the same information, most of the apartments in the block have been sold to an Israeli owner, while the DLGO has also asked the Land Registry for information on the remaining owners.
Tsouloftas said the legal route would also be followed in the case of the 36 buildings that have been classified as dangerous and on which warning stickers were placed at the entrances in Greek and English.
The issue of dangerous buildings in both Germasogeia and Limassol has been known for years. But after the deadly collapse of an apartment block in Germasogeia, authorities appear to be moving more quickly to prevent another incident and to pressure owners of dangerous buildings to act.
The warning signs placed last Saturday on 36 apartment buildings in Limassol have caused alarm among both owners and tenants, many of whom say they do not know how to respond.
One such case is the Soulla Court apartment block in Germasogeia, where residents and some owners said they were taken by surprise because they did not know the building had been classified as dangerous.
Speaking to Phileleftheros, building management committee chairman Evanthis Papadopoulos said: “They came, put a sticker on the door of the apartment block. They did not inform anyone, they did not speak to anyone. They put up the sign and left, and left us wondering what was happening.”
He said the building had been renovated in 2017 and that no technical inspection had been carried out since then. He questioned how the block had been judged dangerous and said the renovation had not been taken into account.
Papadopoulos said he had sent a letter to the Limassol DLGO asking the authorities to clarify why the building had been deemed dangerous so that residents and owners could know the reason.
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