Dangerous Valletta buildings may be sealed off

Derelict properties in Valletta that constitute an eyesore and a public danger may be repaired and sealed off by the local council at the expense of their owners if its proposed Maintenance of Building Facades bye law is approved.

These buildings would then only be returned to the owners if they paid the costs footed by the council to render them safe and close them up.

The bye law has been drafted to curb a "ridiculous" situation that could not carry on, Valletta mayor Alexiei Dingli said, referring to the anomaly between the government's efforts to upgrade the city and the substantial number of abandoned properties left to crumble.

Drafted by the local council in June, it is awaiting publication in the Government Gazette. Its purpose is to overcome the problem of tracing ownership, which normally leaves any attempt to sort out a dilapidated building at a complete standstill.

Dr Dingli explained that, once a report was lodged at the local council, generally the procedure was to ask the Land Department whether the property in question belonged to it. If it did, the department was asked to take action and the building sealed off.

This was recently the case when a disused shop in Old Theatre Street, by the primary school and surrounded by restaurants, was left abandoned, shutters up, and turned into a dump, with mice running around, Dr Dingli said.

But the story is more complicated when the property is in private hands. In such cases the council's attempts to trace the owners would normally be to no avail.

While the local council cannot intervene in the case of private property, the police can force the owner to take immediate action, laying down a deadline for repair of the building.

Again, however, the problem lay in tracking down the owners, Dr Dingli said. Often there were no records or the house was divided among so many heirs that nobody bothered to do anything about it.

The bye law would allow for a notice to be affixed to unoccupied properties asking the proprietors to carry out the necessary works.

If they fail to start intervention within seven days, the council would do so itself, at the expense of the owner, locking up the place until the expenses were repaid.

"If the owner turns up, he will have no choice but to pay the council before taking back the building," Dr Dingli said.

Asked whether the council could afford the expenses, with no guarantee that the "missing" owners would reappear and that it would retrieve the money spent, the mayor questioned whether the city could afford to have properties that were falling apart.

"I prefer to clean them up and seal them off," he said.

Having padlocked, abandoned buildings would not necessarily avoid the eyesores but the mayor has a plan. Still in an embryonic stage, it could mean the capital's derelict properties would be turned into an opportunity for artistic expression.

His idea is to cover these buildings with a blank canvas on which artists and children could give vent to their creativity - an initiative that would also serve to sensitise the public to the sorry state of the buildings.

The draft bye law also sets down that façades should be painted a minimum of every three years with owners liable to a daily fine until they finish the job if they ignore a notice by the council.

Once the bye law goes through, Dr Dingli also intends to create an inventory on the substantial number of derelict buildings with the collaboration of the parish priest, whom he deems to be a good source of information.

The capital's dilapidated property not only makes for shabbiness but also presents a danger to residents. Norman Shaw, who lives opposite an abandoned house in St Paul Street, was walking round to the boot of his parked car when he heard glass shattering on the pavement, missing him by centimetres.

"When I went to report the incident, the police said they already have a file on the house but they could not do anything about it," he recounted. This was possibly due to the number of owners, who may also be in court.

They later came round to put up an iron barricade and some tape to cordon off the site but both have since been removed and there was no sign alerting the public to the danger, Mr Shaw said.

The façade looked like it was in imminent danger of collapse and could injure, or even kill someone, he maintained, pointing out a large crack in it. The roof was missing and the second ceiling seemed to have partially caved in, he said.