by YASIN ABU TAQIU
DOHA: Tenants of several old partitioned villas in the city are in shock to see notices on their premises put up by municipal authorities saying that their boundary walls have encroached government land and should be demolished.
The ‘building/excavation violation notice’ is asking the owners of the buildings to contact the municipality within 24 hours. The violation is described as “Illegal encroachment of perimeter wall.” Each notice is signed by a municipal inspector who visited the villa. This reporter has counted 15 notices in Old Airport area alone.
Tenants of many villas, overlooking the streets, say that their accommodations will be directly exposed to the street if the existing compound walls are removed. Most of these villas are occupied by expatriate single workers.
The warning apparently has come as part of an ongoing campaign against various types of violations at residential buildings.
An agent responsible for collecting rents in some of these villas said that he had visited the municipality offices along with the building owner and they were told to demolish the outer wall. “They told us that the outside wall was built on the road and this encroachment is not allowed. They also warned that if we don’t demolish the wall, they will do it on their own and impose a fine on the owner,” he said.
A spokesman from the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning told this daily that there is an ongoing campaign against building violations and several notices have already been issued. He could not give further details.
The building owners have been asked to report to the authorities within 24 hours. However, the tenants say that many owners may not be aware of the notice since they or their agents do not visit the villas daily. Some residents said they waited for the 24-hour deadline to be over to see what was going to happen. The municipal authorities have not yet taken any action even after the deadline ended.
Many of these villas are located in the Old Airport area, where a lot of road works are going on. It is likely that some of these buildings have encroached into areas that are demarcated for excavation. What surprises many is the fact that most of these villas and their compound walls have been there for more than 40 years.
“You cannot just go and build houses without a licence and if these buildings were licensed then how this violation has cropped up now?,” asked a resident.
“There has been so many eviction notices and now this also looks like one,” said a resident requesting anonymity. “Our room’s wall and the compound wall is exactly the same and if the wall is going to be removed, we will be exposed to the street,” he added. He is staying in a villa with portacabin extensions, which is considered a clear violation of the rules.
The Peninsula
