711 buildings in Nicosia district declared dangerous, EOA asks for €2 million a year

711 buildings in Nicosia district have officially been declared dangerous, according to updated data from the Nicosia District Local Government Organisation (EOA). The organisation is asking the government to allocate €2 million a year for ten years to address the problem.

The EOA currently has 1,495 cases under review. Of these, 711 buildings have been entered in the active register of dangerous structures, 130 are undergoing the official dangerous-building declaration procedure, and the remaining 654 are still being inspected.

So far, residents have been forcibly evacuated from only two dangerous buildings, while warnings have been sent to owners in a further seven cases. In two cases, the EOA went to court for permission to demolish structures whose owners did not respond, while five buildings were cordoned off.

The EOA identifies a shortage of staff and funding as its main problems: the organisation received responsibility for dangerous structures only in April last year, and the handover took place without new software, staff recruitment or tariffs covering the actual cost of the work.

The EOA is proposing that the Finance Ministry establish a special fund to provide loans for urgent repairs when an owner refuses to pay, and then recover the costs from them. The interest rate on such loans should be higher than usual, and if the owner still fails to pay, the debt should be registered against their property.

The Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK) warns that the buildings already identified are “only the visible part of the problem”. Its chairman, Konstantinos Konstantis, described the situation as “long-standing and systemic” and singled out apartment buildings without a management committee: repairs there are delayed because no one collects the money. ETEK is proposing the creation of a single online register of dangerous buildings.

At the beginning of September, a bill is expected to be submitted to parliament that will distinguish between “potentially dangerous” and already “dangerous” buildings. It will allow the authorities to evacuate residents, repair or partially or completely demolish a structure, and prohibit entry and letting. Owners who ignore the orders may have their water or electricity cut off and be fined up to €40,000.