What is hidden in this picture from the center of Bucharest? Case about how an apartment building appeared on the site of a 100-year-old house and what violations were reported

Works on the 4th floor block of the building. The intersection of Lascăr Catargiu and Visarion Street has come to an end, although Mayor Nikušor Dan pointed out at the beginning of the year that the construction permit had expired. In March, the construction of the block was only up to the first floor, and now the building is complete, at least from the outside, as seen from the street.

Vissariona 8 – August 2023Photo: HotNews/Catiusa Ivanov

The quarter was authorized by the Firea administration on the site of a house at 8 Visarriona Street, which was demolished piece by piece from 2007 to 2019 until nothing remained, without a demolition permit.

The history of the building shows the incompetence, negligence and possibly corruption of a system that is unable to protect its heritage, the abuse of the honest people of this city.

The capital city hall issued a permit for the construction of a 4-story block on May 31, 2019, the beneficiary at that time was Bodin Claudio Roberto, according to the data on the city hall website and on the website board.

Work began soon after, but as early as 2019, after neighbors and HotNews.ro reported what had happened, namely the unauthorized demolition of the building at 8 Visarion Street, the case came to the attention of the prosecutor’s office. In January 2021, the prosecutor’s office decided to stop the work and send the people involved to court, but due to an error in the investigation of the criminal proceedings, the case was sent to another prosecutor’s office, so the decision to stop the work was canceled.

In February 2023, work was started again, the construction of the building is 1 floor.

Nikushor Dan: “This permit expired a long time ago, but the owner continued to work”

However, Mayor Nikushor Dan claims that the building permit expired in 2022, and anything built between February 2023 and now will be without a valid permit. The mayor says that he notified the prosecutor’s office and asked to stop the work, but to no avail.

“That permit expired a long time ago, at least a year and a half, but the owner, who is about the tenth owner since the illegal demolition of the building began in 2008-2009, continues to operate without a permit. .
Unfortunately, all we could do was to inform the public prosecutor’s office, because the Romanian legal system provides that building without a permit in a protected area is a crime, and I, the mayor, the local police can only assess that it is a crime and refer a case to the prosecutor’s office.
We sent a notice of the commission of a criminal offense and a demand to stop the works to the prosecutor’s office at the 1st district court back in January-February of this year, when the works started, although it was obvious that they did not take place. authorization
Unfortunately, we still haven’t received a response from the prosecutor’s office. In fact, this is solely the fault of the prosecutor’s office. It is impossible for a competent civil authority, the mayor, to say that this building does not have a permit and the owner should go about his business, and the prosecutor’s office did not report this,” Nikušor Dan told HotNews.ro.

Regarding the criminal case in which the demolition of an old house on a plot of land was investigated without a demolition permit, the mayor says that it was transferred to another prosecutor’s office.

“This case was processed by the prosecutor’s office at the 1st district court, it was extremely well worked out, the testimony of witnesses was taken, the owners were heard and sent to court for the crime of destruction of cultural value. The First District Court overturned the entire indictment, stating that one of the defendants would have the status of a lawyer, and that the investigation should then be conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Appeal in Bucharest. And since the refusal, 7-8 months have passed, the competence of the prosecutor’s office at the Court of Appeal of Bucharest also included the resolution of our request to stop work and investigate this crime of demolition before issuing a construction permit. “, Nikushor Dan explained.

According to him, due to the inefficiency of other institutions, the prosecutor’s office is overloaded with applications for criminal proceedings, which is why their resolution is significantly delayed.

In parallel with the criminal cases in the courts, the process of revoking the permit, on the basis of which the 4-story block was built, is also ongoing, on the grounds that it was issued illegally.

“Association Salvați București is the one that sued, demanding the cancellation of the building permit and the cancellation of the structure built on the basis of the permit. That building permit was not issued legally, and an examination was ordered that said the permit was illegal. The illegality is also related to the fact that the building was demolished there without a demolition permit, as well as to the violation of urban planning parameters, especially the lateral distances from the surrounding buildings. This is what the civil procedure expert has established so far, and I hope that the court will also know very soon,” Nikushor Dan explained.

The mayor says that the building cannot be registered, even if it is completed.

“In order to register, they must have a certificate of acceptance. He must have a valid permit to get it, and we made it clear that he didn’t. And in order to get water, electricity, gas, they have to have a permit, and the law says that you don’t allow utilities in illegal buildings,” Nikushor Dan explained.

The owner says that the permit will be valid until September 2, 2023, it is written on the site’s signboard. According to him, the works started on 19.07.2019, and the permit is valid for 24 months.

“This is a matter that is discussed in the law, in the sense that they had a permit that was suspended by a government agency. And whether or not to continue the power of attorney for this period, for which the state body, in this case, the prosecutor’s office, suspended it, is a question of law. And in this regard, they even have a lawsuit against the city hall, opened on the civil site, through which they ask to state that the authority has been extended. But until the authority comes and says that your permit has been extended for that period, moreover, when the government authority comes to tell you that your permit has not been extended, what you continue to build is a crime,” he said. .announced by Nikushor Dan in March of this year,

when HotNews.ro wrote that work had resumed.

How did the house at 8 Visariona disappear, although there was no demolition permit?

12 years ago, the house on the street 8, he was whole, even well-groomed. Since 2001, the building has been in a state of disrepair. In 2007, the joinery was removed, and the ornaments on the facade began to crumble. In 2008, the owners tried to demolish it, but under pressure from civil society and the media, the authorities intervened and stopped the illegal work. After this episode, the house was left without a roof, but the facade remained intact. Then little by little the building was left unguarded and brick by brick was stolen. In 2018, only a few pieces of the wall remained of the beautiful building. In 2019, they were also demolished.

HotNews.ro then asked if the city hall had issued a demolition permit. They received an answer that such a permit was not required, although there was a house there.

“After the control carried out on 16.07.2019 by the General Directorate of Local Police and Control of the Municipality of Bucharest in the building on the street Visarion is gone. 8, Sector 1, was found to be encroaching on elements left over from a structure that was once on the ground, works that were recommended by a technical expert certified by MDRL through a Technical Note dated 10.07.2019 to stop the imminent danger of collapse. During the control mission, the object provided at the address No. 2006/01/08/2018 of the Bucharest Municipality Culture Office, which states that the documentation submitted for “dismantling the existing buildings on the land in a deep state of destruction, in order to free the site” was analyzed and “it was decided to reject/supplement the documentation, as the claim is unfounded, according to the extract from the land act 42081/14.5.2018, the building is no longer on the land and according to the visit of the Department of Culture of the village The Municipality of Bucharest, according to the ballots of the members of the Commission, the building no longer exists on the ground,” reads the response sent by the capital’s mayor’s office to HotNews.ro’s request.

The representatives of the municipality also informed that they will contact the State Construction Inspectorate with a request to check this case.

Despite the flagrant illegalities that have occurred with the building at 8 Visariona Street for the past 10 years, on May 31, 2019, the capital’s city hall allowed a block with two basements, the first floor and 4 floors with the purpose of collective housing on the plot of land. The beneficiary is Bodin Claudio Roberto, according to the data on the website of the capital city hall.

“Regarding the construction permit issued by the General Directorate of Urban Planning and Territorial Development at the City Hall of Bucharest at Visariona Street no. 8, we contend that this was based on an extract from the land register indicating land available for construction, which was also indicated by the zonal commission for historical monuments, which issued the special notice necessary for obtaining the permit. We emphasize that the construction permit is issued in accordance with the law, with all the necessary consents and approvals,” representatives of the capital city hall noted in 2019.