Six abandoned homes in Bahrain thought to be used for ‘illicit acts’ have been knocked down.

They are among more than 100 houses earmarked for demolition by the Northern Governorate’s Abandoned and Suspicious Homes Committee, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Its head Ali Al Arabi described the properties in Buri, Demistan, Bu Gowa and Janusan as ‘crime generators.’

“We have been monitoring some of these houses and they turned out to be a shelter for those willing to do immoral things,” he told the GDN.

“Some even don’t have doors and attract people to do whatever they like inside.

“These six houses are just the first step and hopefully we are going to get rid of the rest as soon as we finish the legal procedures for them.”

Plans to demolish three more houses are underway in Budaiya and Duraz, while technical reports are being drawn up for three others in Demistan and Malkiya.

Al Arabi said it could take up to a month to demolish a property after finishing all legal procedures with the owners.

However, it could take years if a house belongs to more than one person.

“All homes will be demolished after finishing their legal procedures and informing the owners,” he explained.

“It can only take us a month to demolish a house but it sometimes take us years to do it because some houses have more than one owner, who can be in Bahrain or abroad.

“A bigger problem is when the house is owned by many and the owners fight in court over its ownership or for their share.”

Al Arabi was speaking following a meeting of committee members, which comprised officials from the Northern Governorate, Northern Municipality and Northern Police Directorate.

They discussed tackling different challenges when demolishing houses, such as accidentally cutting off power cables of neighbouring homes.

“Officials have to inspect the houses before demolishing them because we have to cut off the power and we can’t do that before checking if it affects the other neighbouring houses,” added Al Arabi.

“We need to avoid cutting any electricity cables belonging to these houses.” - TradeArabia News Service