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Explained: Permits for Reinforcement and Partial Reconstruction in Damascus

23-05-2023/in Analysis & Features, HLP /by Rand Shamaa

The Damascus governorate’s Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation is in charge of granting special permits for reinforcement and partial reconstruction of licensed constructed buildings within zoned areas of the capital. These permits may be used to renovate, re-clad, modernise or rectify prior construction errors in buildings. However, these permits cannot be granted for buildings in the Old City of Damascus, where prior approval from the Department of Antiquities is required.

For example, the permits are granted in the following cases: when the structure of a building is damaged due to additional unstudied loads, such as from installing other features on external surfaces. This can also include extra weight from water cisterns and fuel tanks for heating and natural factors such as rainwater or sewage leakage. In these and other cases, when re-fixing the home, the engineer may decide to reinforce any columns and build metal structural casings around them. Property owners must obtain a reinforcement or partial reconstruction permit for this.

After the February 06 earthquake, there has been an increased demand for these permits due to buildings across Damascus that partially collapsed or were damaged. However, the Damascus governorate required residents of some of these buildings to reinforce them at their own expense, especially in the New Al-Sham Suburb project area.

Applicants must submit the following documents to obtain a reinforcement or partial reconstruction permit:

A permit request obtained from the Licensing Department office;
A real estate certificate issued by the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs, including the property’s subdivision number, location on the city zoning map, building specifications and the names of the owner or joint ownership shares;
A document showing the ifraz, or subdivision, of the property to be reinforced, issued by the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs. This is a technical plan showing the property’s shape and boundaries.;
A document showing the zoning plan issued by the Damascus governorate and specifying the property’s location within that plan;
A current survey displaying the complete property descriptions, dimensions and any modifications to the property, including previous violations of the construction code. This survey is to be issued by an architect or civil engineer.;
A structural plan detailing how the building was constructed, including any columns, foundations and walls, as well as the load on each of these elements. A structural engineer issues this plan.;
Detailed plans, including floorplans, showing the quantity of the materials needed for reinforcement and reconstruction. These plans are to be prepared by a consulting structural engineer licensed by the Engineers’ Syndicate. They must include tables listing the quantities of materials for the reinforcement.;
A police report, issued by the police station responsible for the area in which the property is located. This report should indicate that a police patrol consisting of a head officer and several personnel visited the property’s location and inspected it. The report should also include the names of the patrol members, their ranks, residents’ names, personal details and the names of any eyewitnesses. Also specified are the property details, the patrol’s observations about the general condition of the property and the locations of any partial or total collapses on some parts of the property. Finally, this report should include any complaints from neighbours and residents, if any.;
A written promise from the applicant that they will not take advantage of the permit to build unlicensed construction;
Consent from all the owners or permission from the judiciary.

There are three cases in which reconstruction is not allowed and where reinforcement of at-risk parts of the property is permitted:

If the property is within an approved plan, such as a park or road;
If the property has been expropriated. If this is the case, then the opinion of the expropriation office is required. This is considered a form of pressure by the governorate on owners of expropriated real estate to vacate their properties and demolish them for the benefit of the expropriating party;
If the property is located within areas protected for agriculture.

Despite the importance of reinforcement, especially for buildings over five decades old, it is clear from the above conditions that the Damascus governorate has strict requirements for granting reinforcement and partial reconstruction permits. This strictness on the governorate’s part could lead to delays in implementing regular maintenance of buildings, especially those with multiple storeys, and can prolong bureaucratic procedures–which becomes an issue if there are unexpected natural disasters like earthquakes. On the other hand, undertaking reinforcement promptly can help prevent buildings from collapsing and protect residents.

Meanwhile, reinforcement permits are often used for unlicensed construction, such as putting water tanks on rooftops, installing elevators or building protrusions. Without any effective monitoring mechanism, the written promise not to use these permits for such construction is meaningless. Damascus municipalities often turn a blind eye to unlicensed construction when the violators have a reinforcement permit. For example, one building owner used their permit to dig and construct a basement for their building in a wealthy neighbourhood of the capital. Instead of reinforcing the building as the permit called for, this owner put the entire building at risk of future collapse.

Further, the governorate’s requirement that all the property’s owners consent to the permit can delay the issuance of permits, thereby exposing buildings to structural risk. Notably, a demolition permit requires the consent of just three-quarters of the property owners, which can deprive the remaining one-quarter of the owners of their rights even if the demolished building was not at risk of collapse.

In cases of reinforcement, the consent of all the property owners is required, even if they do not reside in the building. This means non-resident owners can object to the reinforcement work for financial reasons unrelated to any risks that threaten the building’s structural safety or the lives of its residents. In such cases, it is rare to turn to the judiciary because of the lengthy litigation periods required, delayed decisions and the possibility of appeal. Residents, therefore, usually settle these issues directly with the objecting party, often through illegal financial agreements, until that party agrees to the reinforcement.

For example, in one wealthy Damascus neighbourhood, a property owner wanted to reinforce their commercial property, which occupied the ground floor of a multi-storey residential building. When he tried to obtain written consent from the building occupants so that he could get the reinforcement permit, one of them objected. This person only ended up agreeing to the reinforcement work after the permit applicant promised to re-clad their apartment for free.

Explained: Demolition Permits in Damascus Governorate

02-05-2023/in Analysis & Features, HLP /by Rand Shamaa

The Damascus governorate’s Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation has a Department of Licensing and Construction that grants real estate demolition permits for licensed properties within zoned areas. The governorate usually issues these permits for rebuilding old or structurally unsafe buildings or demolishing traditional Arab-style homes as new multi-storey units. In some cases, however, the permits are a means of pressuring tenants with old, permanent rental contracts into relinquishing their rights or vacating the property.

The aftermath of the February 06 earthquake saw increased demand for demolition permits, especially for buildings that partially collapsed and needed to be demolished and rebuilt. It is worth noting, however, that governorates can demolish such buildings without prior consent from the owners if they are at risk of collapsing on residents or adjacent properties.

Anyone hoping to demolish their property or a part of it (such as an annexe or additional storey, or even a surrounding exterior wall) must first obtain a “permit request booklet” from the governorate, which must be filled and accompanied by a file containing various documents about the applicant and their property. Applicants must submit the entire file for registration to the Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation. Once applicants complete the procedures and obtain the permit, private work crews hired by the contractor or owner may demolish the property and remove the debris to a designated rubble site on the city’s outskirts. Property owners must pay for demolition and debris transport out-of-pocket.

According to the Damascus governorate’s official website, applicants must submit the following documents to obtain a demolition permit:

A photocopied, enclosed plan showing the land area, building boundaries and surrounding open spaces;
A real estate registration extract issued by the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs, displaying the subdivision number, the property’s location on the city zoning map, building specifications and owner or joint ownership shares;
Approval from 75 percent of the property owners is the minimum required to obtain and register the permit request booklet;
A photocopy of the ifraz, or subdivision, plan for demolishing the property issued by the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs. The technical plan details the property’s shape and boundaries alongside construction regulations within the local zoning plan;
A clearance certificate from the Ayn Al-Fijeh Water Establishment confirming no outstanding financial liabilities or unpaid water bills for the property;
Copies of any supporting documents issued by a consulting engineer showing how to prevent the building from collapsing on its own;
A letter from the competent municipal services department confirming that they have viewed the application and informed the property occupants;
Photographs of the building from all sides.

The 1997 building code for Damascus, published on the governorate’s official website, requires several additional documents and deeds to obtain demolition permits for existing and non-classified historic buildings:

A request to the directorate to demolish the building on a particular subdivided piece of land submitted by at least three-quarters of the property owners;
A technical report from an engineer stating that the demolition will take place under their responsibility and supervision;
A notification for occupants of the property that the demolition permit is not considered a justification for their eviction;
An ownership statement free of any prohibiting indications for the share belonging to the applicant, also known as a real estate clearance. The clearance shows that the page for that property in the Land Registry has no indications of mortgage for debt or loans and no orders prohibiting the disposal of the property due, for example, to there being heirs awaiting inventory of a bequest and distribution of shares;
Approval from an architectural construction committee, which includes members of the Damascus Governorate Council as the licensor, the Directorate of Antiquities to confirm that the site is not historical and can legally be demolished, and the Engineers’ Syndicate that provides technical expertise. This committee is formed by decree from the governor based on a proposal from the Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation;
A written, notarised confirmation from the demolition permit applicant that they will not start demolition until the building is fully vacated;
Removing structures that violate the building code or encroach on public property and dealing with real estate rights per laws and regulations in place.

It is unclear why the types of required documents differ in these two cases, despite the type of demolition permit being the same for both.

In both cases, at least three-quarters of the property owners must agree to the demolition to obtain a permit. For less important matters, the governorate requires the agreement of all owners, e.g., an elevator licence or beautifying the facade of a building. It is unclear what objection mechanisms are in place – if any – for the one-fourth of owners who might disagree with the demolition. Further, building codes do not explain why a demolition permit is not considered a justification for evicting property occupants, even though security forces may be called upon to evict occupants in other, less consequential cases.

Structural Safety Committees Inspect Earthquake-Damaged Buildings in Damascus

04-04-2023/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

Recent weeks have seen the Damascus governorate form dozens of structural safety committees to inspect buildings in the capital, which was not really impacted by the February 6 earthquake.

Immediately after the quake, the governorate set up a WhatsApp number to let residents of Damascus get in touch and report any cracks in their buildings. After receiving these reports, a joint committee would be dispatched to inspect the building for cracks and issue recommendations. The governorate forms these committees with other official entities, so that they include engineers and experts from both sides. For example, there are nine joint committees between the governorate and the University of Damascus Faculty of Engineering; 12 between the governorate and the Higher Institute for Seismic Research; and nine emergency joint committees between the governorate and the Damascus branch of the Syrian Engineers Syndicate.

In addition, the governorate formed committees consisting of its own engineers and its 16 municipalities, for a general inspection of all buildings in the city’s municipal services directorate. The governorate also formed a committee to oversee any reinforcement work, which would accompany the local engineering committees on an as-need basis.

At the governorate’s request, the Damascus branch of the Syrian Engineers Syndicate formed a 15-person emergency committee headed by their branch president tasked with assessing the technical safety of facilities and buildings. It was also aimed at providing technical support and test construction materials in the syndicate’s laboratory.

Finally, the General Company for Engineering Studies (GCES), affiliated with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, formed a committee to inspect government buildings in Damascus for structural safety.

These committees have inspected a combined 2,300 buildings in the capital based on reports from residents, according to an estimate by the Damascus governor published in the official Tishreen newspaper on March 23.

Sources told The Syria Report that the committees found cracks in the walls of some buildings in the Al-Mazzeh 86 neighbourhood. One of the buildings, which consisted of five storeys, showed cracks in its columns and was temporarily evacuated. However, inspectors allowed residents to return to the building, asking them to fill the cracks with cement and monitor them. If the cracks were to grow, then the committee there would study possible reinforcement of the building. Lastly, they recommended constructing several retaining walls in the area at the governorate’s expense.

Some committees inspecting homes in Al-Sham Al-Jedida suburb, previously known as Dummar residential suburb, found that some buildings there had sunk several centimetres into the ground. One committee requested that residents of at least one building construct full metal reinforcements around its load-bearing columns, with the engineering study and implementation costs to be paid for by the residents themselves.

In general, the committees lacked any unified engineering standards and chaos prevailed. Each committee conducted merely visual inspections of the buildings in their areas without using testing equipment or scales. They then classified the buildings according to their structural safety, listing them as either safe and undamaged, as damaged and in need of reinforcement, or, finally, as damaged, at risk of collapse and in need of evacuation and demolition.

The Syria Report’s sources said the most active committees were those that included members from the Engineers’ Syndicate, as it seeks to regain its engineering role after having been marginalised in recent years by the Construction Contractors’ Syndicate. The Engineers’ Syndicate succeeded in imposing unified standards for the fees of engineering studies, inspections of damaged buildings and facilities, and supervision of reconstruction or reinforcement work. This was apparent in Ministry of Public Works and Housing Decision No. 1698 on February 27, 2023, which approved the Syrian Engineers’ Syndicate Central Council Decision No. 4 — this measure reduced the fees for engineers to check on the status of buildings damaged by the earthquake in the most heavily impacted governorates. However, the syndicate was not able to set clear, unified standards for how to inspect damaged buildings or to undertake restoration and reinforcement work, instead leaving that task to the engineering committees.

Meanwhile, no rights organisations participated in monitoring the work of the committees, nor was there any documentation of the damaged properties as the process lacked legal mechanisms for objecting to the committees’ decisions. Based on the committees’ recommendations, the Damascus governorate demolished some of the buildings that were at risk of collapse, after they underwent inspection. All of these buildings were already at risk before the earthquake and were only further damaged in the disaster, including buildings in the Kafr Sousa and Sarouja neighbourhoods. The governorate offered residents of these buildings the option of moving into temporary shelter centres, but most of them decided instead on moving to other parts of the city at their own expense.

Sources told The Syria Report that some residents are afraid to report the cracks in their buildings, fearing they could be evacuated and their homes demolished without any hope of compensation, forcing them to live in the shelter centres or in rental homes at their own expense. Other residents in cracked buildings even tried bribing the committees or pressuring them to issue reports saying their homes were structurally sound. Meanwhile, other people feared that influential figures could seize buildings at low prices by pressuring the committees into deeming safe buildings to be at risk of collapse. This lack of legal mechanisms, as well as fears of security pressure, have restricted the work of engineers on the committees, some of whom have consequently tried to avoid making the right decisions, fearing potential consequences.

Explained: The Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation in Damascus Governorate

28-03-2023/in Analysis & Features, HLP /by Rand Shamaa

The Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation is part of the municipal services at the Damasus governorate. It is tasked mainly with preparing and following up on the city’s general zoning draft plan. The directorate also puts in place the city’s planning and expropriation draft plans and follows up on procedures for approval.

The directorate is in charge of planning, implementation and supervision, tasks that give it wide-reaching powers that often affect housing, land and property rights. For example, 40 years ago the directorate made an expropriation plan for properties in the RuknEddin informal settlement, located at the foot of Mount Qasioun, in order to widen certain streets and build a school. Though the area underwent expropriation, this project has not yet been implemented. Instead, these properties have fallen into disrepair and heirs have been barred from restoring them. A similar problem happened in the Midan neighbourhood of Damascus, when some properties were expropriated in order to widen local streets.

The directorate is also responsible for classifying districts within the capital as residential, commercial or agricultural. This task includes keeping some areas, such as Basateen Al-Razi and Basateen Kiwan in the Mazzeh area classified as agricultural land despite being located in the heart of Damascus, under the pretext of maintaining green spaces in the capital. Property owners in these areas have therefore been unable to obtain construction permits. As a result, informal settlements were established in these formerly green areas that grew without regulation. In the early 2000s, however, the directorate reneged and decided to change the classification of Basateen Kiwan from an agricultural area into a real estate investment area, and offered real estate there for investment without any justification. Later, Legislative Decree No. 66 of 2012, which created two zoned real estate areas within the general zoning plan for Damascus, allowed for the governorate to transform Basateen Al-Razi and its surroundings into Marota City.

In addition, the directorate is responsible for securing alternative housing (which is not provided for free) to eligible residents, as well as following up on the procedures for distributing the homes. That said, the handover of alternative housing units usually faces years-long delays and in many cases the homes are located outside the administrative boundaries of Damascus. The 1990s saw the Four Seasons Hotel built on land expropriated by the Damascus governorate in the downtown Zuqaq Al-Sakhr neighbourhood — but owners of those expropriated properties were given alternative housing in the Qudsaya suburb. And residents entitled to alternative housing in the Marota and Basilia City projects are still waiting, seven years after eviction, for homes that will be constructed at their own expense.

The Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation also prepares and follows up on studies related to health and the environment, though it does not appear to be fulfilling this duty to the greatest extent possible. For example, construction on the Yazid River water treatment plant in Damascus’ RuknEddin neighbourhood, as well as the sewage treatment plant in Dummar, located west of Damascus, was completed in the early 2000s. However, they remain out of service to this day, allowing untreated sewage water to be pumped directly into the Barada River.

The Licensing and Construction Department affiliated with the Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation, is in charge of issuing permits for a multitude of construction and demolition projects. This department receives and records applications for construction permits and follows up on issuing them. It also issues orders to start construction. As well as permits for demolition, constructing fortifications (such as walls around or above a building), modifying stairwells, constructing sheds on existing buildings and installing fuel tanks.

The directorate also works to set construction permit fees and improvement fees, and has the authority to halt construction projects due to failure to complete the permit process or pay the necessary fees.

Finally, the directorate is responsible for setting and implementing the system of building codes for Damascus city, which was issued in 1997. This system is a set of administrative decisions issued by local administrative units and approved by the governorates and the Ministry of Public Works and Housing. It determines the conditions that must be met for construction, repair and demolition of buildings and other facilities within those administrative units.