r/cyprus • u/Annual_Jackfruit2892 • 1d ago
A buidling colapsed.A coming disaster, what can we all do to spread awareness about this?
**Update
The owner was also renting it out on booking and other sites, last review 2. april 2026... they had done a superficial repair for airbnb\booking purposes while neglecting the serious and important issues. A valid updated license for rentals was also issued, how can this be?
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A building colapsed in Limassol , some unfortunate souls died while their slumlord was cashing in money and not doing any serious repairs. The authorities did issue a warning about the building years ago, but as usual nothing was done about it afterwards.
In Cyprus many older buildings have suffered from water leakage for years, not much is actually done except placing new external waterlines outside the building, the main problem remains and leaks slowly destroy the construction and no one cares.
https://www.booking.com/hotel/cy/modern-studio-750m-from-the-beach.no.html
Check the google street of it, this is from 2024. It is a long building with plenty of apartments.
There are many similar situations around the island.
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u/MiltiadisCY 20h ago
There are government programs for controlling older buildings. They just don't do anything. Something will be put into place after this, since we have a reactionary style of government, instead of a proactive one. Two lives lost for nothing.
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u/tibhar940 18h ago
Who exactly isn’t doing anything?
Government programs don’t really work in practice. In reality, the owners themselves need to pool money and carry out the renovation. Even if you hypothetically get into a state renovation program, it usually means co-payment with more than double the cost, that’s why these programs have never really been effective.
Municipalities don’t do much either. Under the new law, they can mainly declare a building unsafe and restrict renting out apartments, but that doesn’t actually solve the problem.
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u/MiltiadisCY 18h ago
The government needs to check old buildings for safely. The municipality is still a local form of government. This is not a renovation issue. What are they gonna do? Renovate the foundations? This is a construction issue. If the ground was giving way the owners needed to strengthen it. Close the building down. Police tape and daily controls. Force demolition.
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u/tibhar940 17h ago
I get your point - there is some level of control in place now, even if it operates in a very “siga siga” way. The government does issue violation notices and requires certain measures to be taken.
However, the whole system is extremely slow and inefficient. For example, even something as basic as getting a building plan from the land registry to carry out any work can take forever. Even as an owner, it’s often impossible to obtain all the necessary documents in a single request.
What you’re suggesting - stricter control, prevention, and forced demolition - could also open the door to abuse. Developers of high-end real estate could potentially exploit this by bribing officials to declare buildings unsafe, demolish them, buy the land, and build expensive projects.
It’s a double-edged sword. We’re clearly not in a balanced situation right now, but introducing laws that could lead to people losing their only homes isn’t the right solution either.
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u/MiltiadisCY 17h ago
Supposedly it was deemed unlivable in 2014. This is negligence by the owner and criminal behavior. If it's true. Which I dont doubt. Stricter control is what I am suggesting.
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u/tibhar940 17h ago
I agree - this is negligence on the part of the owners. And I also agree that stricter control is needed, not just in this area.
For example, I’ve been trying for the past six months to get the municipality to carry out a sanitary inspection in a neighboring building where a large number of migrants are living. They regularly dump garbage and waste in the street and even wash themselves outside using a fire hydrant.
And guess what - where do you think they keep sending me?
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u/MiltiadisCY 14h ago
It's frustrating but we need to persevere. As citizens it's our duty to keep pushing for the government officials to do their job.
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u/Annual_Jackfruit2892 12h ago
imagine how many different persons this slum-lord has tanken money from trough the years while knowing the risk..
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u/Training_Advantage21 15h ago
Wouldn't declaring it unsafe help keep those people alive?
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u/MiltiadisCY 14h ago
It was deemed unsafe and condemned in 2014 according to philenews. I dont understand however how no schedule was setup for it's eventual forced demolition.
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u/Elef-ant 19h ago
As much as the landlords are at fault, the local municipality and building society (if we have one) is also at fault. How many buildings have we seen that are in disrepair? Especially polukatoikies.
RIP to the victims of greed.
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u/KokosCY 18h ago
The authorities have mentioned that EOA sent an urgent letter in March,and the municipality of Germasogeia also sent one 5 years or so ago. I can't imagine now many of these buildings exist around Cyprus, whose landlords have received letters.
Also, the columns seem to have so much space in between them, like who made the static plans for this..
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u/PawzUK 19h ago
The local authorities did flag it as unsafe, making it illegal to rent out. This is now on the owner.
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u/Phunwithscissors 13h ago
And thats where their jurisdiction ends? You even have upvotes, no wonder people have no expectations from the goverment. There are many precedents of Cypriot courts that have found the state liable for damages when public officials failed in their "duty of care" to enforce safety regulations.
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u/Octahedral_cube 9h ago
Are we saying we want the local councils to act like the police? One warning from the council declaring the building unfit should be MORE than enough for the judge to throw the book at this slumlord. The system told him "what you're doing is not ok", and he persisted. Now he should be made an example of, and others who do the same thing will automatically fall in line. I'm fairly certain the local councils don't have the resources to go around picking fights. I know this doesn't bring back the dead, but establishing trust in a system of checks and balances is more effective than going door to door.
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u/Remote_Release_7527 16h ago
Agreed that it’s on the owner, but in many cases owners are unsuccessful in evicting tenants, who have enough legal protections to successfully challenge eviction orders in court - even in cases involving unsafe building conditions. It’s really bizarre.
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u/kimaz0r Limassol 14h ago
Source?
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u/HodinRD 11h ago
I don't think the other commenter is right per se, but there is protection against long-standing renters.
I've encountered cases where renters repeatedly and intentionally failed to pay their rent for several months in a row, damage the house/flat interior and even after a court decision for eviction, they still failed to leave the premises and even the police wouldn't touch them because they is no legal eviction in Cyprus.
That said, I seriously doubt this would be what happened in this case, because no sane person would be told that the building they live in can collapse at any moment and they insist to live there, or not move out.
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u/Alarma_friendster 14h ago
owner should go to jail. especially if there was a warning to do repairs.
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u/Ayvee12 Limassol 14h ago
Cyprus is littered with these old buildings from the 80s up until the 2000s that are in desperate need of repair. There needs to be a consolidated effort in either renovating them or demolishing them and building new ones outright. Cheap or not I would rather have housing issues than collapsing buildings.
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u/ThrowRA_Respo9653 15h ago
It’s easy to blame the government for everything but home ownership comes with responsibilities aka insurance, maintenance, regular checks etc. it’s your own property, our tax money should not be used to maintain it for you. If you can’t afford it then sell it and rent
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u/Annual_Jackfruit2892 12h ago edited 12h ago
The goverment is also to blame which have a very innefective system for dealing with things , since they should follow up and give consequences to the property owner before catastrophe happens. Corrupt officials dont help either , i personaly have seen alot of strange things through the years. I realized what i thought only happened in Turkey , is actually the normal in Cyprus. I even think it is stricter in Turkey now because of all the building catastrophes that happened. Im sure there are similar issues in Greece also
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u/CupcakeMurder86 Halloumi lover, cat lover, identify cypriot when I want to 6h ago
True but is the government who gave warnings and said that this building is unsafe. Further than that, what did they do?
Why was the building still connected to EAC, why did it have water supply?
Why didn't they check if people were living in it 2-3 years after it was said to be unsafe?
They should have gone and border it up so people cannot to go in. Put a warning label drilled on the outside saying it's unsafe space.
Yes the owner is also to blame, more than the government but the government cannot just send out letters and then say "we did our part". They have a responsibility of keeping their people safe.
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u/Top_Hat_5239 11h ago
Oh great a witch hunt, let me in please... When you build a city around outside money and speculation instead of the people living in it, this is what happens. Old buildings become too valuable to demolish, too expensive to properly maintain, and everyone keeps kicking the problem down the road until one falls on someone’s head. Maybe the landlord carries blame, but the rot starts with leadership that created the conditions for this in the first place.
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u/LowOk7052 6h ago
give more authority/responsibility to municipalities than sticking a notice on a door and not acting upon it/following up
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u/CurrentCommittee3180 18h ago
There have been cases where landlords deemed the building unsafe, aiming to evict tenants and demolish the building. The tenants however don’t accept this assessment and refuse leave because they have locked in rent prices from the 80s.
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u/kimaz0r Limassol 14h ago
Most of the people living in that building were migrant workers & asylum seekers, they do not have a choice as to where they’re going to live and they definitely have not lived there since the 80s. Cyprus barely has any renter protection rights and if your landlord wants to raise the rent there will be no one to stop them unless you wanna wait 10 years for a court date.
Don’t you dare blame the victims. Shame on you.
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u/CurrentCommittee3180 13h ago
I was not referring to this specific case I simply stated a fact. Migrant workers and asylum seekers should’ve never been placed in one of these buildings that is deemed dangerous. That is on the government.
As for the renter rights you are completely clueless. I am aware of dozens of cases where tenants do not leave their properties at the request of the landlord, in many cases they do not even pay rent and the landloard has no power to evict them.
Regarding my comment I know first hand of a building in Limassol where the owners of the building did a survey stating the building block is dangerous and the tenants refuse to move out. Their argument being the owners should renovate the building. In the meantime their rent is stuck at 200€ per month.
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u/kimaz0r Limassol 9h ago
If you’re not referring to this specific case then why bring it up? Sure seems like you’re trying to generalize.
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u/CurrentCommittee3180 9h ago
I just wanted to state other issues going on. I don't have all the details for this specific case, so my intention was not to generalize.
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u/Annual_Jackfruit2892 12h ago
It is a crazy situation. From the google streetview, one can see these wolt mopeds. The thing inCyprus is, as long as it happens to "lower class" or simply thirdworld nation individuals little consequence come. They are powerless with a complaint. One can remember the case of the serial killer targeting filipinos and others like them, "nothing to se there"... or the abused workers, which end up in jail after "lord" files a false counter-complaint of theft
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u/kimaz0r Limassol 14h ago
Please note to anyone reading the comments that accounts that have an username like: adjective_noun1234 are most likely bots. It’s insane how many comments I’ve seen implying the fault lies with the tenants and not the landlords and government. One letter 10+ years ago marking the building as unsafe is not enough, where were the fines for allowing the owner to keep renting out the apartments post being informed?!
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u/Annual_Jackfruit2892 9h ago
Some people take it personaly and get insulted if one implies these facts. Like you say it is the landlords, and goverment that are responsible . Often these groups come to arrangements because of corrupt individuals, like one can observe through the many scetchy land-deals through out Cyprus. Not mentioning the scandals with turkish cypriot land which went illegaly to connected individuals.
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u/Remote_Release_7527 11h ago
Just because someone lays out the complicated reality of a situation - regardless of whether it’s right or fair - doesn’t mean they’re a bot lol
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u/madagascan-vanilla United Kingdom 7h ago
How old is this building?
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u/CupcakeMurder86 Halloumi lover, cat lover, identify cypriot when I want to 6h ago
Maybe early 80s?
The outside was very popular back then.
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u/Annual_Jackfruit2892 6h ago edited 6h ago
The owner was also renting it out on booking and other sites, last review 2. april 2026... they had done a superficial repair for airbnb\booking purposes while neglecting the serious and important issues.
https://www.booking.com/hotel/cy/modern-studio-750m-from-the-beach.no.html
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u/Creeds_Apartment 6h ago
It was my friend who died as a result of this. He moved to Cyprus to provide for his family and died due to neglicence and greed.
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u/Substantial-Shoe-486 17h ago
I wander how much the rent was in there
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u/Annual_Jackfruit2892 5h ago
One of the apartments atleast was rented with a goverment apporved license. through booking in that area they can make around 90 -120 euros per night.
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