A family residing in Kirchberg experienced a harrowing close call when a section of balcony edging collapsed into their garden, just moments after their children had been playing there.
The National Society for Affordable Housing (SNHBM) took immediate action to secure the affected premises. As a result, balconies, terraces, and gardens in the vicinity are now temporarily unusable.
Roberto, one of the twenty co-owners of the Meïssa residence, who had purchased his new flat just two years ago, recounted the terrifying incident in an interview with our colleagues from RTL Infos. He expressed profound relief, stating, "we know we've been lucky when we see the pieces that smashed into the ground! If they'd hit us, we'd have been slashed in two."
Still shaken by the ordeal, Roberto, a father of three daughters ranging in age from one to thirteen, described the sequence of events as it occurred at around 7.30pm on Sunday evening. He said, "we were in the garden when I said, 'Let's go inside and prepare something to eat.' Typically, the girls prefer to stay in the garden, but this time, fortunately, they followed me inside." He paused before continuing, "thirty minutes later, we heard a loud bang, almost like an explosion."
The source of the disturbance became apparent as several blocks of cement edging had dislodged from the second-floor balcony, plummeting six metres to the ground below. Éloïse*, the president of the condominium council, stressed the potentially tragic outcome had the family remained in the garden. She promptly alerted the SNHBM, the property developer and managing agent, to address the situation as well as a bailiff who conducted an inspection of the damage on site.
The SNHBM was quick to react because "they are fully aware that what has happened is serious," reports Éloïse. Guy Entringer, the director of SNHBM, confirms: "We are absolutely aware of the problem and take it seriously. We reacted immediately."
In a letter distributed to residents on Monday morning, SNHBM management expressed its astonishment at the incident, stating, "we have learned with bewilderment that bricks had fallen from a balcony in a residence in the Meïssa, Leonis, and Clava condominium. However, at this moment, we are unable to provide an explanation for the incident."
"We immediately contacted the company that built the enclosed shell building and agreed to secure the three buildings, which are built identically," assures Entringer.
The Luxembourg Corporation of Enterprises (CLE) secured the perimeter. Fences now enclose the vicinity around the three buildings, and the façades have been reinforced. "We're also building protective tunnels at the entrances. We don't want to take any risks," insists CLE employee Jacques Buret, who is in charge of the project.
© Domingos Oliveira / RTL
"In the interest of safety," the SNHBM has advised co-owners and tenants "not to use their balconies, terraces, and ground-floor gardens." An independent expert was appointed by the insurer on Tuesday morning to carry out a swift analysis as quickly as possible in order to understand what happened and, above all, whether there are any other risk factors on the façades of the buildings.
This is not the first time that these three Kirchberg residences have attracted negative attention. The mould problems in some of the cellars have been resolved by SNHBM, "but some co-owners are still having problems with humidity," says the president of the condominium council.
Other problems have arisen more recently. Roberto mentions a neighbour whose "window imploded from the inside" and "cracked tiles in the bathroom" of his next-door neighbour. Above all, he explains that for the past two years, the situation has not really settled down, that some neighbours "are tired," while others "are rebelling." What exasperates him is that "no one is ever in charge. We're just sitting here waiting."
This incident follows a statement made by the union council's president in a July 2022 article by RTL Infos, where she said that no one would be surprised if a flat were to be put up for sale due to a resident's decision to leave. She now acknowledges, "there's definitely one [flat for sale] now."
*The first name has been changed
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