An elderly woman has had to move out of her new home and a resident’s old father has been unable to visit him for two years because the lift installed in their San Ġwann apartment block was never activated.

These are two stories about inactivated lifts that have come to light after Times of Malta last week highlighted the plight of an elderly woman imprisoned in her penthouse because she cannot climb the stairs.

Surgeon George Felice recounted how the decision to develop the airspace of his property and build three more floors left him distraught as he succumbed to every demand to solve the problem and move on – but still got nowhere.

Felice said that in his case, “the lady on the third floor has had to go and live with her son as a result, while the man on the fourth floor cannot receive a visit from his father, who is unable to climb the stairs”.

Another woman with a fractured leg has had to scale all those floors in that state, he said.

Earlier this month Times of Malta reported the story of Antide Baldacchino who is unable to leave her fourth-floor flat because a lift has never been activated. Photo: Karl Andrew Micallef

Meanwhile, Felice has been subjected to blackmail by the lift provider, he said.

“The contractor does not finish the job, leaves and then the blackmail starts to get the lift to function,” he said, adding that the saga has given him a nervous breakdown.

Two years ago, the contractor had removed the previous lift and installed a new one. But till today, it is still not functional.

Felice has taken the contractor to court because the property, meant to be built within a year, is not yet completed over three years later.

He said he is owed “lots of money” and had to foot several additional expenses as the project was unfinished.

Desperate to fix the problem for the residents, Felice was told by the lift provider that the surrounding area had to be clad in marble and closed off.

But after he embarked on the additional expense, the lift remained inoperable, and he was asked to fork out €8,000.

Felice said he agreed to the sum to “get on with it”, but that figure was then arbitrarily raised to €14,400.

“Again, I agreed, to put it behind me, but no one came to sign the contract and I was asked to drop my cases against the contractor in order to get the lift to function,” he recounted.

He envisages that the only next step for him is to remove the installed lift and put in yet another new one while breaking all the surrounding marble slabs again.

In Marsalforn, a holiday home rendered useless

Another owner, who preferred to remain anonymous, said his Marsalforn apartment block was meant to be completed by 2017 but the job took four years.

When it was finally finished earlier this year, it had no lift.

The lift provider informed him that the contractor has “not paid one cent and until he gives him a substantial amount as a deposit, nothing will happen”.

Over 70 years old, he said he and his wife had to take the decision not to use their new flat last summer due to the “huge inconvenience” of going up and down four flights of stairs.

The owners of the sixth-floor apartment are also both senior citizens, who spent the summer climbing five flights, while the elderly couple living year-round in a flat on the third floor have no choice but to walk up and down too.

The residents have made all payments in full, the owner insisted. But the contractor has been “teasing us with continuous promises that the lift will be installed in a short time and then finding some excuse why this did not happen”.

Safeguards and redress for residents stalled by similar problems seem scarce, with general advice to owners being to always retain full control of the purchase and installation of the lift – the artery of the building – when developing a property.