Tuesday, August 7, 2007, #149 (1416)

Tbilisi Supervisory Service orders owners of abandoned buildings to fix up their properties

By Anna Kamushadze

The owners of three abandoned and uncompleted Tbilisi buildings were given 25 days to either restart construction or close the sites down-or be fined GEL 35 000 by the Tbilisi Supervisory Service.

"We gave an edict to the owners saying they must address violations of safety regulations," the head of the Supervisory Service, Valerian Gvatua, told Rustavi 2.

The building sites, at Tchovelidze 6, Gotua 10 and Tabukashvili 33, are owned by Georgian businesses; a citizens' collective owns the Gotua building.

According to the Supervisory Service, administrative procedures have also been launched against 7-10 similarly abandoned buildings in Tbilisi.

Ucha Zakashvili, a Supervisory Service lawyer, explained to the Messenger that the fines are written into a law on construction in the city.

"The owners of the buildings are facing administrative action because the period of permission for construction expired and the construction sites were abandoned without following relevant regulations. The abandoned buildings under construction will be temporarily closed down," Zakashvili said.

According to the head of the Supervisory Service, the buildings' owners need to clean up the sites and build safety fences. The construction companies also need to assign watchmen to the building sites and address environmental pollution concerns.

If inspections show the buildings are in poor shape, the Supervisory Service said, they'll be torn down entirely.

The Supervisory Service also added fines would go up three times if unpaid within three months; if the owners fail to pay or restart construction, the city will take the buildings and auction them off.

Rustavi 2 reported that the owners of the constructions on Tshovelidze and Gotua streets had agreed to meet the city's demands, while the owner of the site on Tabukashvili could not be reached. People living in the building next door told journalists that site had been abandoned for years.

"It's been seven or eight years that this building has been abandoned. There was an announcement that it was up for sale, but no one bought it. This building is putting us in a bad situation. It's so close to our building that it's actually damaging the structure-our whole wall is damaged," a resident of the neighboring building, Manana Gogvava, told Rustavi 2.


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