Residents told to leave flats at risk of collapse
A BLOCK of eight flats in the Lavinium development in the Dikmen region has been condemned and its residents evacuated due to the risk of collapse.
People living in Block 17 of the housing estate were ordered to leave their homes on Tuesday due to a “risk to life and property”.
The building is leaning by “eight to 10 degrees” due to subsidence. Three of the four families living in the block had already abandoned their homes before the official evacuation notice was issued. A fourth family who were still staying in the dangerous building left with their belongings after Girne District Governorate officials sealed it off.
Some had spent their life savings or taken out loans to pay £35,000 to become homeowners or buy-to-let investors just two years ago.
According to a report compiled by experts, the land slippage occurred under the building because the filling soil used was not “completely compacted” and due to the absence of retaining walls to hold the soil and the lack of a water drainage system.
The report stated that the filling material contained gravel which was taken from roadworks on the GirneLefkoşa main road.
“Civil engineer Kemal Aktunç said that the filling material was not laid in 30cm layers but in thicker layers and that the compaction was not up to the [building] code as it was not done sufficiently,” the report said.
“In addition, it was notable that the material in question contained debris which was not suitable for filling.
“A soil whose durability and bearing capacity is not increased by compaction faces problems such as changing volume due to vibrations and load, settling of the ground, deformation and even an inability to resist erosion.
“Retaining walls are not at the required level and there is no water drainage system. Looking at the building in terms of retaining walls, which have functions such as holding the soil and carrying the
soil load, it is observed that the retaining walls in the area in question remain at a very low level.
“Due to the lack of a standard retaining wall and drainage system holding the soil, cracks and crevices are also noticeable [in the building].
“The loose material which was compacted insufficiently lost its strength (durability) due to increased pore water pressure from heavy rains and could not resist slipping.”
Dikmen Mayor Yüksel Çelebi stated that the Lavinium complex project has changed hands “several times” since its inception and that “sometimes it went outside of the scope of the project”.
He noted that he took action regarding the issue when he was informed about it four months ago but then learned that the families had been experiencing this problem for a year.
Based on the information he received, Mr Çelebi said that he sent a letter to the Architects and Engineers Chamber and requested that the building be examined.
Mr Çelebi said that a report was prepared describing the incident in detail and that he sent it to the Girne District Governorate who took “immediate action”.
“People have been in serious trouble,” he said. “They borrowed from the bank. They were paying their loans with the rent from these apartments and many of our people borrowed in foreign currency. “There is such a grievance and the people who invested in owning a home have become tenants elsewhere. The contractor company should provide one home to each of these families as soon as possible.”
Mr Çelebi said that the Lavinium housing project had received approval from the Town Planning Department, was then evaluated by the Girne District Governorate’s licence division and a construction permit was given. Stating that the Lavinium Complex consists of 88 apartments and that “most of these apartments are finished”, he noted that only the building in question had a problem.
Hasip Dereci, one of the homeowners affected, said that he had paid £22,000 to construction company Bulut İnşaat, which had failed to complete the property. Another contractor then finished the job under “power of attorney” from Bulut İnşaat director Temel Bulut.
In February of this year a court in Turkey sentenced Mr Bulut to a total of 316 years in prison and a fine of 1.275 million TL for defrauding 130 people who he had sold properties to in Turkey without completing them.
Stating that he had paid a total of £35,000 for his flat, Mr Dereci said: “A teacher pulled me aside and said, ‘This building is crooked’. I said, ‘No way, it’s only been a year since I bought the apartment’. Later I realised he was right so I called the contractor. He yelled at me. I went to a lawyer. The contractor said ‘There is no such thing’.”
Mr Dereci said that he had collected the signatures of several people and wrote a petition calling for an inspection of the building and an investigation into the matter.
He said that the contractor had up until a week ago insisted that there was nothing wrong with the building.
“While I was fighting legally, they threatened me and said things like, ‘Wait and you’ll see’,” he added.
Commenting on the issue to Cyprus Today’s sister newspaper Kıbrıs, Cyprus Turkish Construction Contractors Association president Cafer Gürcafer said that the contractor, who he named as Tahir Soycan, is not a member of his organisation and has been “building illegal structures”.
Kıbrıs was unable to contact Mr Soycan for comment despite repeated attempts.
Mr Gürcafer said the subsidence at the Lavinium site was due to the “lack of inspections and illegally conducted construction activities”.
Chamber of Civil Engineers president Gürkan Yağcıoğlu said: “What needed to be done should have been done from the very beginning. But after what happened, we are trying to find the culprits. There are already various problems in contracting in our country but the main issue here is the lack of building inspections. Buildings should be legally inspected by the state.”