A family living next door to a dilapidated property which has been vacant for the last ten years have filed a judicial protest to force its owners to repair the dangerously run-down property.

The Farrugia couple, living in Triq Lapsi, St Julian’s, filed the judicial act in the wake of the recent collapse of buildings in Gwardamanġa and Swieqi.

In the protest, they called upon M & M Properties Ltd and co-owner Mario-Victor Attard to carry out all necessary remedial and precautionary works on the adjacent property and to do so within one week.

The couple’s claim was backed by architectural reports attesting to the “unsafe scenario” caused by the property next door which had been left vacant for around 10 years with little or no maintenance and was overgrown with vegetation even throughout the roof area, in spite of repeated calls by the concerned neighbours.

Part of the property’s roof had collapsed in January and the situation was aggravated by heavy rains and storms in recent months.

An architect appointed by the Farrugias had said that the collapse was “predictable to say the least”, given the “inaction and lack of general maintenance” of the property.

The Farrugias say their family home has been damaged and suffers from damp as a result of the situation next door.

Excavations undertaken two doors away were, moreover, making the situation even more dangerous, they have argued.

In spite of repeated calls by the protesting parties, two legal letters and an e-mail by one of the co-owners acknowledging that the abandoned property needed “immediate attention as it was causing potential damage to both neighbours and passers by,” the necessary works were never undertaken.

In the light of recent building disasters, the protesting parties granted the protested parties one week within which to make the necessary intervention to safeguard life and property, to liquidate the damages suffered by the neighbours who reserved the right to take further legal action as necessary.

Lawyers Antoine Naudi and Tyrone Grech signed the judicial protest.