The Parliamentary Committee on Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons and Victims met today, Tuesday, 15 March 2022, and discussed the following issues:
1. The assessment of the need to study the structural adequacy of Turkish Cypriot residences and commercial establishments.
(Self-examination following the recommendation of Mr. Nikos Kettirou, Christos Christofides and Christos Christofias)
(File No. 23.04.039.058.-2022)
In the context of the discussion on the matter, the Director of the Turkish Cypriot Property Management Service stated that both Turkish Cypriot residences and business premises are visually inspected by technicians of the provincial branches of the Service before they are handed over to beneficiaries and, if, after the inspection, it is found that residences are found to be dilapidated, the appropriate procedures for their demolition are followed. In the case of commercial premises, the burden of maintenance is borne by the tenant beneficiaries.
The members of the Commission noted that no structural studies are carried out by the state services for both Turkish Cypriot residences and commercial premises, which raises safety issues for the occupants of the residences and for the managers of the commercial premises who are beneficiaries under contract with the state.
The Commission will come back to examine the issue.
2. The need for more efficient management of debts to the Turkish Cypriot Property Management Service.
(Ex-officio examination on the recommendation of Mr. Nikos Kettirou, Christos Christofides and Christos Christofias)
(File No. 23.04.039.059.-2022)
The Director of the Turkish Cypriot Property Management Service reported that the rent arrears of contract beneficiaries of commercial premises, agricultural plots etc. to the service for 2021 are of the order of €3.8 million.There are, he pointed out, typical tenants, strategic defaulters and several who take advantage of the weaknesses and understaffing of the service. In order to manage debts to the service more efficiently, a number of officers will be hired, through the purchase of services, who, through telephone calls, will invite debtors to repay their debts, a procedure that was also followed in 2020. When the need arises, he noted, the service helps debtors facing financial difficulties by making arrangements for their repayment.
The members of the Committee requested the Director of the Service to instruct the Heads of the Offices of the Turkish Cypriot Property Management Branches to contact the debtors in question, with a view to jointly proceed, by agreement, to a settlement for the repayment of the debts in question, in order to avoid, on the one hand, taking legal action against them and, on the other hand, initiating proceedings for the recovery of the Turkish Cypriot properties held by them.
Secretariat of the Parliamentary Committee for Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons and Victims
Email: parliamentary-committees@parliament.cy
(IK)
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