A GROUP of Bangladeshi men found themselves forced to leave their home last night after part of the wall of the mud brick house they rented in Nicosia’s old town came crashing down.
The outer wall of the old house on Alexiou Kominou Street collapsed at around 3pm yesterday, exposing a bedroom and bathroom to the elements.
One of the five Bangladeshis tenants, who was inside the house at the time, said: “I felt a shaking and looked down and the wall was tumbling down.”
“This was my bedroom,” said another. “I am so relieved it happened while I was at work. It’s just lucky none of us were injured.”
The owner of the house, Emilios Emanuel, said he was alerted to the house’s collapse by a neighbour.
“Thank goodness the wall fell outwards,” he said. “But the issue here is that we have been wanting to renovate the place for years but the Municipality still haven’t responded.”
Emanuel said he had applied to renovate the listed building in May 2001 but still not been given the go-ahead by authorities.
“I had another building in Trikoupi Street, in a similar condition and we tried to make some repairs to prevent further damage and we were given a court injunction. But half the houses in old Nicosia will fall down – it takes years to get permission to fix them up.”
But the tenants of the house said the collapse of the wall had been an accident waiting to happen.
“There were some cracks about three weeks ago which we asked the landlord to look at but nothing was done,” said one man. “It seems the house was unsafe all along.”
However, Emanuel said that some repairs had been made to the inside of the wall a year ago. “We didn’t know it was likely to fall down. My understanding was that after the work was done it would be adequate. Apparently not though.”
Emanuel said that had he known the house was unsafe he would not have let it out to tenants. “I have about 20 houses which are empty and derelict because they are not safe. Obviously I don’t rent these ones out.”
Emanuel reassured the five Bangladeshis would not be spending the night in the house, which is nearly 100 years old.
“I will find them another house to stay in until we sort this out,” he said.
