Kisela Voda residents: three years in a building without technical acceptance after recent fire raises safety alarm

Residents of a four-storey building at Ivan Kozarev Street No. 6 in the Kisela Voda neighbourhood say they have been living for three years in a home that never passed technical acceptance, has no property titles and therefore offers no legal guarantee that the apartments they paid for are theirs to dispose of.

The dispute escalated after a fire broke out behind the building two days ago and heavily affected a ground-floor flat, prompting tenants to speak publicly about long‑standing safety and legal problems they say were ignored by the developer and by local authorities.

"We started moving in in 2024 even though the building has not passed technical acceptance and the interior is not completely finished. The developer probably has some dispute with the Municipality and does not want to call for a technical acceptance. We had to move in; we had no other choice, because he stopped paying rent to us, the co-investors — three of us on this land. Other residents who bought their apartments also moved in, forced to live as tenants and repay loans," says Aleksandra Magdincheva, one of the building's residents.

Missing safety measures and blocked access

Residents report that the construction companies behind the project, which they identify as the Skopje firms "Boming, Oliver and others" and "Tehnogrup", left the building without basic fire-safety equipment: there are no hydrants, the underground garage has never been commissioned for use, and the main entrance is a simple door residents themselves had to key because the lobby reportedly became a gathering point for drug users.

They also say a space meant to be a communal passage was converted into an apartment and sold. "The biggest wrongdoing is that we do not have a passage behind the building, because in the area intended for communal use the developer made an apartment and that apartment was sold. We have no access to that part and, well, the other day a fire started at the back and the ground-floor flat that was supposed to be the passage was the most affected. Firefighters had nowhere to enter; they entered from the neighbours' house, who opened the door for them," Magdincheva said.

Because the building deviates from the approved project, residents say technical acceptance cannot be carried out and therefore no property records (imotni listovi) can be issued. That leaves people who exchanged land for flats or bought apartments without the legal right to sell them or leave them as inheritance. They also report practical problems: utility bills arrive under apartment numbers rather than names; one tenant lost power because of the developer's debt to the electricity company EVN and later had to move out.

Some residents have court cases against the developer over unpaid rents and unfinished work, but lawyers reportedly told them they cannot force a technical acceptance — only the developer can request it. The tenants say the building received a construction permit in April 2021 and was supposed to be finished in February 2023.

Residents say they repeatedly alerted the Municipality of Kisela Voda and other institutions, but received no on‑site inspections or concrete action. "They told us 'thanks for reporting' and that was it — no one came to check or to follow up," Magdincheva said. Tenants now demand an inspection of fire protection and structural compliance and want authorities to act before another incident occurs.

Photo: Приватна архива на станари