renovation_permit – Syria Report

The Hama governorate experienced several seismic tremors in August, the strongest of which occurred shortly after midnight on August 11 and 12, registering 5.3 on the Richter scale. The epicentre was in the village of Tal Al-Durra, near Salamieh, approximately 30 kilometres east of Hama. While these tremors did not result in the collapse of residential buildings, they caused material damage and cracks in homes.

As the tremor exceeded 5 on the Richter scale, Syria’s National Earthquake Centre classified it as an earthquake, and determined that it occurred at a depth of 10 kilometres beneath the surface. These tremors were reportedly caused by movements in the Palmyrene tectonic plate due to accumulated subterranean stress, with geological experts stating that they were indirectly linked to the February 6, 2023 earthquake.

Dozens of people were taken to Salamieh hospitals with fractures and bruises, mostly from jumping out of windows or falling while descending stairs. A local correspondent for The Syria Report noted that emergency teams from the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) set up tents and organised public shelters in parks immediately after the earthquake. Many affected in Salamieh are currently waiting for the AKDN to announce a programme to repair and reinforce their properties. They do not expect much support from the municipality, given its limited budget and its inability to handle tasks such as garbage collection and water supply to residents. The AKDN operates in several regions of Syria, particularly in areas inhabited by the Ismaili community. Salamieh’s population is estimated at around 200,000, most of whom are Ismailis.

Hama Governor Maen Sobhi told the semi-official newspaper Al-Watan on August 28 that the governorate had taken measures to address the impact of the tremors in Salamieh and its surrounding countryside, aiming to mitigate their damage. These measures included forming a public safety committee to inspect damaged buildings and increasing the readiness of disaster response institutions.

In a statement to the official news agency SANA, Salamieh City Council Chairwoman Souhad Zaidan explained that the public safety committee began its work the day after the earthquake. Additionally, the council formed a team of 39 engineers to assess the structural safety of the affected buildings. Mrs Zaidan noted that the council was coordinating with economic and civil organisations to provide alternative rental housing for the affected residents, with rent covered for a full year.

The governor told Al-Watan that 475 homes were damaged by the tremors across Hama Governorate, with 37 needing full evacuation and 152 requiring reinforcement and repairs. However, these figures are not compatible with what the chairwoman of the city council stated in the same article, published on August 28. She noted that the Salamieh city council had received over 900 requests for inspections in the city and had inspected around 750 homes. Of these, 38 percent (285 homes) were found to be safe but in need of minor repairs, 53 percent (398 homes) required reinforcement and repairs, and over 8.5 percent (64 homes) needed to be evacuated and demolished.

A correspondent for The Syria Report highlighted that the discrepancies in the figures given by officials could be seen as an attempt to exaggerate the damage in order to attract support from donor organisations. This appears to be one of the lessons learned by Syrian state institutions following the February 6, 2023 earthquake.

In the same statement to Al-Watan, the governor of Hama called on international donors to help repair the water and sewage systems in Salamieh and its surrounding countryside, and to improve wells and pumping networks to address the severe water crisis, despite the issue being unrelated to the August 12 earthquake. Salamieh and its surrounding areas are suffering from severe drought, with water sources such as wells and springs drying up. As a result, farming in the region has shifted to rain-fed agriculture due to the scarcity of irrigation water. Drinking water is pumped according to a strict rationing schedule, with supplies available for only a few hours every three days. Most residents are forced to buy drinking water from unregulated sources, sold via mobile tankers. The main water network is deteriorating due to lack of maintenance and failure to implement new projects in this sector.

Additionally, one municipal official told The Syria Report that most of the buildings in Salamieh classified as dangerous and in need of demolition were at risk of collapse even before the August 12 earthquake. This is often because the municipality did not issue renovation permits (officially known as reinforcement and partial rebuilding permits) for them. The refusal to grant renovation permits is due to two main reasons: either these buildings are not licensed and have unresolved building violations under Law No. 40 of 2012, with the municipality refusing to reconcile and instead calling for their demolition, or inheritance disputes prevent the subdivision of some properties, making it impossible to issue renovation permits. Most of these homes are old, some are made of mud, and a portion of them are abandoned.

Some of the homes classified as at risk of collapse after the August 12 earthquake were already marked for demolition. The municipality has been demanding their removal for years, as they were built without permits in areas designated for urban expansion west of the city under the expansion of the city’s zoning plan. The owners of these properties refuse to vacate them without compensation, particularly because the municipality has previously evicted and demolished some buildings there without compensating the residents. One such building is located near the branch office of the ruling Baath Party in the city, and the municipality wants to remove it because its location obstructs the expansion of a major road.

On September 11, balconies collapsed on a building overlooking Damascus’ Adnan Al-Malki Square, in one of the city’s most upscale neighbourhoods. The building is next to a complex that contains residences and offices of the Syrian president, his family and members of his personal protection team.

Damascus governorate sources told The Syria Report that the partial building collapse was due to unlicensed excavation and digging underground to expand the basement level – in violation to the given rehabilitation permit. Before the new basement support base could be finished, the building partially collapsed due to the failure of two load-bearing concrete columns.

According to multiple sources who talked to The Syria Report correspondent, Syrian businessman Wassim Al-Qattan owns the ground floor of the building, and the unlicensed excavation work aimed at expanding the basement on his behalf.

Qattan, who is a member of the Rural Damascus Chamber of Commerce, has been on the U.S. and E.U. sanctions list since 2020 for his role in supporting the regime. His business activities focus on commercial and tourism investment. He has also signed contracts with the Damascus governorate to develop and manage on its behalf the Qasioun Mall in the Barzeh neighbourhood and Masa Plaza Mall in the -Malki neighbourhood. Mr Qattan also won a tender from the Ministry of Endowments to invest in the Yaluegha complex in central Damascus, and he is under contract with the Public Sports Federation to invest in the Al-Jalaa Hotel on the Mazzeh highway.

The partially collapsed building was originally owned by Yassine Al-Tabba, who originates from from Damascus. It consists of three storeys, like the adjacent buildings, which were all built in the 1950s. These buildings, constructed with relatively outdated techniques, rely on reinforced concrete and stone, with the load distributed on the walls and pillars. Demolition of some internal walls often leads to partial or total collapses.

Risk in this area is heightened by a network of concrete sewage channels beneath it, through which wastewater and excess water from the Tora River, a tributary of the Barada River, flow. This network is old and poorly maintained, continuously leaking water into the foundation layer of the buildings, a problem that also applies to the Abu Rummaneh, Rawda, and Malki neighbourhoods, in Damascus.

Most local residents are from the upper class, though a noticeable number of apartments have been abandoned since before 2011 due to emigration. The number of empty homes only increased during the war years. Some apartment owners have died, and their heirs have disagreed on the inheritances, further complicated by the emigration of some heirs and ensuing legal issues.

Despite this, apartments in the area are among the most expensive in Damascus, with the price of a single unit ranging between USD 1.4-2 million, depending on the size and location. Consequently, during the war years, these neighbourhoods were among the investment destinations for the war’s affluent class, including businessmen close to the regime, militia leaders and some officers in the security and military services. New owners often renovate or restore these old apartments after obtaining a renovation permit from the governorate.

According to the Damascus governorate’s website, a committee of engineers from the governorate, the Engineers’ Syndicate and the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Damascus University investigated the causes of the recent balcony collapses. It concluded that there had been a violation of the rehabilitation permit, though it did not specify the type of violation. After formally recording the incident with the police, the governorate referred some individuals found responsible for the violation to the judiciary, based on Law No. 40 of 2012.

The Director of the Services Departments at the Damascus governorate confirmed that the Central Demolition crew in her directorate, which is responsible for removing unlicensed construction within the geographical boundary of each directorate in Damascus, is currently re-examining all renovation permits, especially for ground floors, basements and roofs, and checking the quantities of building materials used in the rehabilitation.

The Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation in the Damascus governorate is the body responsible for issuing rehabilitation permits (officially called “reinforcement and partial reconstruction permits”) after the property owner submits a request accompanied by numerous documents, including a Land Registry extract, a plan identifying property boundaries and neighbouring buildings, a zoning plan of the area showing the property number to be renovated, and various other documents. There must also be a description of the property and any internal subdivisions, a structural plan detailing the placement of columns and walls, detailed pictures, amounts of the required construction materials approved by the Engineers’ Syndicate, a written pledge not to commit any unlicensed construction, and, finally, approval from all owners of the building or permission from the judiciary.

The final permit is approved by the designated Services Department in the governorate, as well as the Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation, the area’s police department, the Engineers’ Syndicate, and the supervising and implementing engineer. The district’s engineer and the services engineer, in the municipal sector to which the property belongs, oversee the rehabilitation process. The area’s police department visits the site to monitor the rehabilitation and has the authority to immediately halt work upon discovering a permit violation and apprehend those responsible.

In this particular case, the collapsed building falls under the jurisdiction of the Arbaeen Police Department, which in turn is affiliated with the PoliticalIntelligence security branch in the Ministry of Interior, responsible for protecting the adjacent security complex. Its extensive authority includes the neighbourhoods ofMazraa, Muhajirin, Sheikh MuhiEddin, Abu Rummaneh, Rawda and Malki, reaching all the way to Omeyyad Square and the Army Command Air Force branch. The department’s patrols and checkpoints oversee verifying the identities of rehabilitation crews and the amount of building materials brought into the area, and ensure that they stick to the terms of the rehabilitation permit. Police have the right to bar entry of excess building materials due to suspicions that they might be used for unlicensed construction.

During the war, the area was inspected more than once to scrutinise the rehabilitation crews and monitor their work, especially when it involved excavations, fearing the opposition might dig tunnels in the area surrounding the security complex. Joint security patrols from various security branches, including the Republican Guard, conducted inspections using sophisticated communication devices to check the sounds coming from the work sites. These patrols prevented rehabilitation work on several properties overlooking security and presidential sites. Security forces can prevent the implementation of a permit, even if it is entirely legal and no matter how minor the required work; obtaining and executing a property rehabilitation permit requires a good relationship with multiple parties and often involves paying bribes to employees.

Despite all this scrutiny, the area witnessed many permit violations over the past years. Licence holders often violate the terms of the rehabilitation permit and bribe monitoring committees and police patrols. Still, permit violations can be settled with the governorate via payment of fines.

Recurring violations include expansion at the expense of other obligations, building additional storeys, installing external elevators, expanding apartments at the expense of balconies, expanding basements, and digging new basements. Digging new basements involves underground expansion of the building for the purpose of creating new rooms, stores, or sometimes entire apartments. This type of violation is the most dangerous to the structural integrity of buildings.

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