Author: Denis Tahiri
For months, the Municipality of Tirana has been facing citizens of the capital who have sued it in a court case where the demolition of dozens of buildings in the Kombinat area is being examined. Another lawsuit has been added to the long list of civil lawsuits, in a completely different area of Tirana. It concerns building no. 415/1, on “Ferit Xhajko” street, which all those who live in the capital know as the building opposite the entrance to the Medrese market due to the numerous commercial units located in this building. 50 families live in this building, which, two years after the earthquake of November 26, 2019, were unofficially notified by acquaintances close to the Municipality of Tirana that their building would collapse. An in-depth expertise together with the technical opposition from the Institute of Construction showed that the building was more than 70% damaged. " The first section 75%, the second section 71.5% and the third section 73.7% ," the expert report states. But beyond the hastily signed documents, people who know the truth very well denounce different circumstances and facts.
" The law, or legal act that is in force, states that if the damage to the building is over 70%, it is demolished, because the repair costs exceed the construction costs. Experts who work for the state have come and have looked at it in a friendly manner and have said that this expertise is not valid, there are elements that are not in the building at all ," says the denunciation posted on the editorial office of "Sinjalizo". The citizen, whose name remains confidential, announces that a court process has also been opened to oppose this decision of the Tirana Municipality to demolish the building. But for the opening of this process, the plaintiffs have paradoxically been asked for an independent expertise.
" We did the independent expertise because otherwise the court would not accept the lawsuit, we paid 10 million lek all as residents. This expertise found 31% damaged. No matter how many mistakes it made, it's 40, it's 50, it's 60, but 70% is not, while the municipality has found 71%. The court has accepted the lawsuit, has imposed a seizure by suspending the execution of the Municipality's decision, and has called an expertise group itself. On the other hand, the municipality has announced the signatures for the demolition of the building ," it says in another part of the message received by "Sinjalizo".
"Experts" who evaluate with the naked eye and real experts as no one has seen
It is in this building that Altion Levan's family owns three commercial units, which have been in operation for 12 years. Almost all family members are employed in these commercial units. In the same building they also live in a rented apartment.
" Once, almost a year and a half after the earthquake, but I can't say if they were experts, they entered my store premises and looked. They didn't identify any cracks, they also went to the residents in the building and they didn't identify any damage. To my knowledge, I don't know of any experts who came here to see or test the materials the building was built from. Once, several people came to the store and after the salespeople informed us, we went too, we asked them to identify themselves, they only told us that they were from the municipality, neither the position they held, nor their name, nor any documents at all. We have never seen experts who come with the necessary tools to conduct an expertise of the materials ," recalls Altioni.
And he is not the only one who has never seen experts. Dritan Azexhiu, who was born in this building and still lives there, claims the same thing as the above resident. " We have not received any official notification from the Municipality, but we have learned everything from each other. I am here all day because I have the shop and I have not seen any kind of expert from the Municipality or any state institution to come and do the expertise on site ," he concludes.
But the informational mess in which the Municipality of Tirana has left the residents of this building is worse than the fact that, as it has concluded for two years that the building is in danger for their lives, it has quietly let them live there. This fact makes the expertise in question even more suspicious and fictitious. In these circumstances, residents are uncertain what will happen to them and even more so to their property.
" Before the elections, I received a letter telling me to come and get the rental bonus, but that first bonus is 180 thousand lek, I'm old, sick, am I able to find a house to rent? Plus, I haven't been told anything about what will happen to my property ," says Marika Xheko, who is a resident of this building. The elderly woman adds that the Municipality of Tirana, according to what she has heard, claims that it will turn the space where the building was built into a garden. But others who have investigated more calmly are convinced that if the existing building is demolished, another building will be built there.
" You can't take my property in this area and replace it with fewer meters in another area, which is the end of Tirana. We have learned that they will take us to social housing in Breg i Lumit. But why is a square meter worth the same here and the same there?! Is the building damaged, very good, demolish it and build it where it is, we are even ready to contribute ourselves as residents, and give us the properties as we have had them, not a meter more and not a meter less. We have worked our whole lives to buy a house and now that the Municipality wants, they cannot take our house away from us, especially with false expertise to benefit a builder ," says another resident, who points his finger and adds. " Look at the building opposite! There is a crack from the first to the fifth floor! A year ago, the municipality kicked the residents out of the building, cutting off the water supply with the excuse that the building was unstable, DS5. Only one family remained on the third floor, who did not have the means to move or live elsewhere," the resident said.
For almost a year the building remained empty, and then the degree of damage was changed from DS5 to DS3 or less, because a well-known painter with friends in the City Hall had properties there. Meanwhile, our buildings, without any cracks or cracks, they say are uninhabitable and dangerous for life, while they remembered to tell us this almost two years after the earthquake. The building opposite is being repopulated, and the Municipality will plaster it, or they will demolish us!
The earthquake, an open wound
Hundreds of families have benefited from the rent bonus in the capital because their homes are uninhabitable after the earthquake of November 26, 2019. But the financial amount given by the Municipality of Tirana on the rent bonus remains a problem. But in the building in question, only 50 of the 4 families received the bonus notification and according to the residents, they refused to receive it.
" First of all, that bonus is 180 thousand old lek, tell me, can you find a house to rent in Tirana for 180 thousand old lek? One plus one goes for a minimum of 250 thousand lek in the best case, plus can a family of 5 members stay in one plus one? Let's also remove the rent part because we will go to Dajt to stay, but we have businesses here, with these shops we provide income for our families. With my shop, I keep all the family members alive, the children's school and everything. The Municipality should give me a solution on how to do it. It's very simple, there is no damage from the earthquake here because the private expertise issued a DS-1 which means minor damage, a thin crack in the plaster, meanwhile the experts of the Municipality of Tirana want to demolish it, and they have even chosen the demolition company because according to their expertise it is over 70% damaged. Someone has to go after this too "He was arrested for producing a fake document ," adds another resident, who in addition to the apartment, has also owned a shop for years. Through the income he receives from it, he provides for his family's livelihood.
Questionable expertise, one-spirit opposition
For residents, beyond the inability to carry out all the procedures for evaluating their property, the manner in which the expert report was carried out, the refusal by the Municipality to publish these findings, and the inconsistency of the findings of the expert report commissioned by the Municipality of Tirana with that made by an independent studio, there is also the fact that the contracted company was not selected through a public tender procedure, but a direct contracting without competition that has raised red flags regarding the competition.
A few months after the in-depth Expertise which judged the buildings uninhabitable and the technical opposition from the Construction Institute, with protocol number 1911/2 dated 04.08.2020, the Minister of State for Reconstruction, following a complaint from the residents of this building, addressed Tirana Municipality with a letter with protocol number 1827/1 dated 09.04.2021 asking the Municipality to take measures to suspend the Decision of the Municipal Council for the demolition of this building, in order for the residents to exercise their legal right to carry out once again the in-depth Act-Expertise of this object.
Another fact that stands out and raises doubts about the accuracy of the expertise performed is that of the time of the technical opposition for this object. The request for a technical opposition at the Construction Institute was made on August 3, 2020, while this opposition was returned to the applicant a day later on August 4, 2020. Asked about this short time frame for the return of the opposition, an expert from the Construction Institute who wishes to remain anonymous said: " An accurate opposition cannot be made even 24 hours after receiving the request. It would take at least 1 week and doubts would still arise, because this opposition is not done only on the basis of papers, but there is also verification work in the field ."
From the documents obtained from the Institute of Construction, a number of technical oppositions ordered by the Municipality of Tirana, this institute has yet to conclude an official contract with this institution, thus violating the contract between the two. Part of the information requested by the Municipality of Tirana has also been requested from the Institute of Construction, which has shown readiness to provide it against payment, but with a very ridiculous reproduction fee of 300 lek (new) per photocopied page. In relation to these fees, a complaint has been made to the Commissioner for the Right to Information, who in July 2021 started a procedure to obtain an opinion from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice, whether these fees are acceptable and in accordance with the law, despite the fact that it is the latter which provides guidance on the real fees and costs of reproducing public information. This procedure still continues to be open more than three months after its initiation, making it impossible to obtain the requested information within a legal and objective deadline.
Taking into account all these inconsistencies, but also the fact that if this building collapses, the damage would be irreversible, the Administrative Court of the First Instance of Tirana on 17.06.2021 decided: Acceptance of the request for insurance of the lawsuit, Suspension of decision no. 26 , dated 1.3.2021 for the forced demolition of building 415/1 on "Ferit Xhajko" street, Administrative Unit no. 8.
On the other hand, although the court has requested that all actions be stopped until the end of the judicial process and the issuance of a final decision, the residents of this building state that they often receive phone calls from the municipal unit, who ask them to present the certificates family at the municipal unit along with other documents.
In parallel with these efforts by the Municipality of Tirana to evict the residents of these buildings, the latter, with a procedure limited in participants but also in time, within 10 days during May of this year, signed a contract with the companies VAS Konstruksion Shpk and 4 AM Shpk for the demolition and disposal of construction waste, for 13 (thirteen) buildings, one of which is the building in question, for which the court has decided to suspend any action by the local authorities.
Terr informative, the Municipality of Tirana hides behind a blank CD. Commissioner unable to enforce the law
For more than three and a half months, the Albanian Center for Quality Journalism has been following this issue, where part of its work has been the provision of official information from the Municipality of Tirana. Consequently, on June 8, ACQJ sent to Tirana Municipality a request according to the legal provisions of the Law on Information, where it asked for a copy of the contract of NET-grup Sh.pk which carried out the expertise, a copy of the in-depth report of the expertise carried out by NET-grup shpk, the act of technical opposition made by the Institute of Construction and the Act-agreement made between the Institute of Construction and the Municipality of Tirana. To shed light on this issue, ACQJ requested information from the Municipality of Tirana, asking what this institution had planned to do with that space, for how long the residents would be relocated, both in the short-term and in the long-term plan. What will happen to the residents of this building and if other constructions are planned in it?
After a month, the Municipality of Tirana replied, but without answering the questions, with the argument that the Albanian Center for Quality Journalism had no right to be informed about some of them. But the law is clear on the right to information on matters like this, where the requested information is entirely on a procedure of public interest, which is developed by a budgetary institution, which uses funds from the State Budget and local taxes.
After numerous complaints to the Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data, at the end of July 2021, the Municipality of Tirana has accepted the provision of information against the relevant payments, based on the fees of this institution. ACQJ was informed that the information would be made available only after its preparation by the General Directorate of Co-Owned Facilities, Administration of Administrative Units and Civil Emergencies and the issuance of the relevant invoice. For more than a month and a half from this, there is still no final answer from the Tirana Municipality, apart from the constant justification that the staff is on summer vacation, the institution has a very high number of requests for information and there are problems in their processing , as well as in the absence of the holders of the institution who are on annual leave.
After a series of more than 7 e-mails, almost weekly, as a reminder to the Municipality of Tirana, as well as occasional phone calls to the Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data to take the relevant legal actions for the obligation of this institution to providing public information, ACQJ was contacted by the latter during the month of September. The Commissioner declares that in such circumstances, where the Municipality of Tirana has promised information, but has not yet implemented it, the Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data remains powerless to act and the only way to get the information is to contact the Municipality of Tirana and constantly remind it.
Only on September 18, the Municipality of Tirana, after making the corresponding payment, made the expected information available to ACQJ through a CD, which was supposed to have inside it: Copies of the technical opposition, the assessment act based on object and a copy of the decision of the Municipal Council for the forced demolition of this Object. But in this supposed answer, no comment was given by the Municipality of Tirana regarding the questions about the future of the space in which building no. 415/1, on "Ferit Xhajko" Street after the demolition of the latter, nor the contract with the company NET-Grup SHPK, which performed the evaluation expertise of the object.
After consulting the materials obtained from this institution, it was found that the CD made available by the Municipality of Tirana was empty and there was no material in it. This fact was immediately pointed out to both the Municipality of Tirana and the Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data.
Until the moment of publication of this article, the Municipality of Tirana has opposed this fact, while the Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data has not yet responded. Since the start of the information search process, more than three and a half months have passed, violating every deadline provided for in the Law on the Right to Information as well as the basic principles for informing the public. However, ACQJ continues to wait for this information, for which payment has already been made to Tirana Municipality. What is worth emphasizing is the fact that all the requested information should be public at any time on the online portal of the Municipality of Tirana, without the need to receive this information against payment.
