La Laguna Orders Immediate Evacuation of Unstable Bajamar Apartment Building
Authorities in La Laguna, Tenerife, have ordered the immediate evacuation of the ‘Dácil’ building in Bajamar after structural instability and years of stalled repairs rendered the property unsafe for residents.
Housing safety in La Laguna, Tenerife, is back under scrutiny after the Municipal Urban Planning Department ordered the immediate evacuation of the ‘Dácil’ building in Bajamar. Officials have given the 28 households living there 24 hours to vacate, stating that the building’s current condition is too unstable to guarantee the safety of its residents.
The order follows a report from the team managing ongoing renovations at the site. Their assessment concluded that the building’s structural integrity cannot be confirmed, given the current state of the work and the reinforcements that remain unfinished. As a result, the building is now closed to everyone except emergency crews and specialized personnel.
This is not a new problem; the building has been deteriorating since at least 2019. At that time, an inspection led to a temporary evacuation, which was later lifted after an external firm certified the building as habitable, provided that specific structural repairs were made. Seven years later, those repairs remain incomplete. Officials point to a lack of access to privately owned commercial units on the ground floor as a major hurdle, noting that existing support structures are failing and cracks have appeared in the building’s exterior.
The local government has launched a support protocol to assist the displaced residents. Over the next three days, engineers will assess the building to determine if additional emergency shoring is needed or if new structural issues have developed.
The situation is complicated by long-standing disputes among the building's owners. According to residents, the community has been unable to reach a consensus on how to proceed. Disagreements over funding, unpaid maintenance fees, and the refusal of some owners to grant access to their properties have stalled repairs for years, leading to this forced administrative intervention.
For residents to return home, the Urban Planning Department has made it clear that a new, comprehensive technical report will be required. This study must be conducted by a specialist firm and must definitively prove that the building meets all current structural safety standards.