The Larnaca District Local Government Organisation is set to order the evacuation of an apartment block in Chrysopolitissa today, as authorities work through decisions on 23 occupied buildings in the city deemed dangerous — at least three of them large complexes housing hundreds of residents.
The evacuation order for the Chrysopolitissa block will affect 17 apartments and two shops, DLGO Larnaca president Angelos Hadjicharalambous told Phileleftheros, adding that residents with no alternative accommodation will be put up in hotels for a few days.
The first 150 visual inspections of buildings in Larnaca are due to be completed by Friday, after which decisions will be taken on the 23 occupied buildings identified as dangerous. A further 40 unoccupied buildings are in the process of being sealed.
Two of those — one in Aradippou and one in Dromolaxia — have already been sealed. Most of the remainder are in the city centre and in the Turkish Cypriot neighbourhood of Skala. Hadjicharalambous said the Guardian of TC Properties has been notified to take measures regarding another 36 buildings deemed dangerous.
ktiZo programme buildings
In the coming days, four more apartment blocks are expected to be evacuated — three in the Agii Anargyroi refugee settlement and one in Agios Ioannis. These fall under the ktiZo programme and their residents will be managed by the Interior Ministry.
Madona Court
The Madona Court building in Faneromeni is expected to be sealed today after its approximately 60 residents have left. Social workers from Larnaca Municipality recorded the residents, and accommodation in hotels for a few days was arranged for 45 of them.
Brick-built houses
Unregistered dangerous buildings — particularly brick-built houses — are adding to the DLGO’s difficulties. Two partial collapses of such properties have been recorded in recent days.
In the latest incident, a wall and part of the ceiling of one room collapsed last Monday at a four-room brick-built house in Chrysopolitissa whose owner was renting the rooms separately to foreign nationals. The room that collapsed was unoccupied at the time; three foreign nationals living in the property were unharmed.
When asked whether additional inspections of brick-built houses would be carried out, Hadjicharalambous said the DLGO does not have the capacity to inspect every house in Larnaca. He repeated his call to property owners and stressed the need for legislative change.
“Owners must realise that they bear responsibility — and serious responsibility at that. The legislation must also be amended to give us the power to impose administrative fines in cases like yesterday’s. At present we can only impose fines in cases where we have previously issued a warning,” he said.
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