Civil engineers call for legislation after balcony collapse
The Civil Engineers’ Association of Cyprus (Spolmik) on Thursday called on lawmakers to act and create legislation for regular building inspections, in light of Wednesday’s balcony collapse in Limassol.
The balcony had fallen off a residential building in the early hours of Wednesday morning. No one was injured.
They said Cyprus’ ageing stock of buildings, many of which are not properly maintained, coupled with the fact that extensions are regularly built on buildings without the requisite study, licensing and supervision, results in failures and collapses of structures.
For this reason, they said, it is “imperative to legislate for the regular inspection of buildings”.
Additionally, they called on the relevant authorities to “take action” on the matter, given that they have “the legal responsibility for the licensing of construction … and also for the implementation of measures and the promotion of actions to remove dangerous building practices.”
They also said private citizens who undertake construction and renovation projects on their own property “must consult a civil engineer”.
They added that civil engineers exist to “advise them and provide services for a proper study, plan and supervision of the safe execution of the works for any required repair, maintenance, and strengthening of the earthquake proofness of the loadbearing elements of a building, as well as the restoration of non-loadbearing elements.”
In addition, they encouraged people to “assign works to qualified professional contractors and craftsmen who have the necessary training, know-how, human resources and equipment”.
Circling back to their calls for legislative action to ensure the safety of buildings going forward, they said that new legislation should go hand in hand with “the development of a maintenance culture and the development of a culture of professionalism.”
They also made reference to the Scientific and Technical Chamber (Etek), who had themselves spoken out on the matter on Wednesday evening.
Etek had said “the country stands at a critical point for implementing measures to prevent such incidents and safeguard human lives,” and called upon the relevant authorities to “take the necessary actions to ensure the safety of buildings falling under their jurisdiction”.
“The existing buildings are often aged and poorly maintained, a situation exacerbated by a lack of maintenance culture observed in Cyprus,” they added.
Earlier, the Limassol municipality had said there were “serious issues regarding the responsibilities of those involved in the maintenance and repair” of the building where the balcony collapsed.
They had also said that the building had undergone maintenance as recently as 2019, carried out by its owners, but that “from today’s judgement, it seems that [the maintenance] was ineffective.”
“The maintenance that was done created a misleading impression regarding the dangers of the building and serious issues have been raised regarding the responsibilities of those involved in its maintenance and repair procedures,” they added.