The fatal earthquake that took the lives of dozens of citizens back in 2019, didn’t stop illegal construction in the city of Durres.

One of the reconstructed buildings in this city, now has 6 floors, compared to 5 before the 2019 earthquake.

Attorney Merita Dakovelli declared that these floors were added as a result of the owner acquiring a rebuilding permit.

“These floors were added as a result of the owner acquiring a reconstruction permit, so these are only 1-story buildings. The building permit is only meant for reconstruction, but they end up adding a floor or two, which means that they’re breaking the rules because reconstructing means building under the same urban conditions and with the same volume of work. A lot is being abused with these new permits,” – she said.

The attorney also underlined that law enforcement authorities are disproportionally punishing those who are most vulnerable.

“In general, regular citizens are being criminally prosecuted and fined. I’ve seen citizens who have been fined up to 5 million ALL for building a surrounding wall, which isn’t in fact an unlawful construction,” – she said.

This is what happened to Spartak Mehmeti, who has been walking in and out of courtrooms since the 2019 earthquake, due to a single balcony.

“The issue started after the earthquake. IMT Durres sends us a notice, which states that we are fined 5 million ALL and have to bring down our balcony. Even this was done selectively because nearly the entire building where we will, has built external balconies and paradoxically, at the same time that we were fined, someone else was working on his balcony,” – he said.

Statistics show that in 2019, a total of 261 illegal constructions were identified. The number doubled in 2019, after authorities identified 406 such cases.

According to the Durres District Court, in the years after the earthquake, fewer cases have been sent for processing and a total of 94 citizens have been convicted.

Meanwhile, according to the city hall and IVN, in 2018 and 2019, there were a total of 410 buildings that had been identified and brought down, whereas in 2020 and 2021, there were 450.

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