Municipalities to oversee dangerous buildings until March 2025

Municipalities will retain responsibility over dangerous buildings until the end of March 2025, under a last-minute law passed by parliament on Thursday.

The law passed is based on a legislative proposal drafted and tabled by MPs, as the government had declined to submit a proposal of its own.

Responsibility over dangerous buildings was supposed to have been transferred away from the municipalities to the EOAs– the new district-level organisations established under the reform of local government that kicked in earlier this year. The EOAs should have taken over jurisdiction over this matter on October 1 – less than a week away.

But the EOAs were complaining that they currently lack both the funds and the technical staff and expertise to handle the matter. The management and demolition of buildings costs a great deal of money.

Also, under the laws governing the EOAs, these organisations are supposed to be self-financing and thus barred from receiving any funds from the central government.

By law, the central government may transfer funds to municipalities, but not to the EOA.

As a result, MPs decided to grant the EOAs a reprieve, and let municipalities stay in charge of dangerous buildings until March 31, 2025.

But MPs also warned that the six-month reprieve would the first and last. Come April 1, 2025, they said, the EOAs must be ready to assume responsibility.

There are five EOAs, one per district – Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and Famagusta. Each is responsible for urban planning, sewerage, water supply, and solid waste management services.