Last chance for Vilnius residents living in historic buildings to benefit from support for exterior renovation later this year

Last chance for Vilnius residents living in historic buildings to benefit from support for exterior renovation later this year

Vilnius residents living in Vilnius Old Town and other cultural heritage sites are urged to hurry up if they want to benefit from the Vilnius Municipality’s support for the exterior renovation of historic buildings: applications will be accepted until 30 April. Povilas Lysiukas, a specialist in building maintenance and real cultural heritage protection at Civinity Namai, a company that maintains and manages multi-apartment buildings, explains the steps residents need to take to benefit from the support.

According to Povilas Lysiukas, Vilnius residents living in the Old Town and other cultural heritage sites often face various challenges in old houses.

“Many residents of the upper floors face problems with leaking roofs, many balconies are in a state of disrepair or close to disrepair, sometimes residents are unable to use them, and the building’s maintenance staff is forced to enclose them with safety nets to protect the safety of passers-by and cars,” says Lysiukas.

Residents of Vilnius City who face such problems, and others who want to increase the value of their property, can still benefit from the support provided by Vilnius City Municipality for the restoration of building facades, roofs, balconies and authentic wooden windows and doors.

“The municipality provides 60% of the support for the restoration of facades, 80% of balconies for other elements of facades in a state of disrepair and 70% for valuable wooden architecture. The municipality also covers 70% of the design and other related costs. This means that the programme will allow residents to renovate the entire façade, roof, balconies, foundations, renovate or restore wooden windows and their frames, shutters and doors and their metal elements, with the municipality covering most of the costs,” says Civinity Namai.

In order to carry out the renovation works, the first step is to contact the administrator or the association in charge of the building in order to organise a residents’ meeting or a written ballot to decide on the design of the renovation project and the scope of the works, and to authorise the administrator to put the design services out to tender. Once a designer has been selected, the management project shall be prepared.

“As the renovation works are carried out in a cultural heritage protection zone, the first step is to prepare the design documentation for the execution of such works: the designer will provide the materials, colours and technological solutions. Based on our experience, we recommend that a complete renovation project be prepared immediately, including repairs to the roof, façade, balconies, foundations and other architectural details of the house. With a complete project in place, residents can decide whether to carry out all the work at once or in stages. If you choose to renovate your house in instalments, you don’t have to go back to the project and pay the cost of additional design work in the future,” says Mr Lysiukas.

Once the project is ready, a tender is launched for the contract works, the residents choose a contractor, sign a contract, organise an expert estimate and submit it to the Vilnius Old Town Renovation Agency together with the grant application. Once the documentation is in place, the contract work starts, is accepted by a certified heritage specialist and a construction supervisor, the completion of the work is reported to the Vilnius Old Town Renewal Agency and the payment of the grant is expected.

“Residents wishing to receive support and renovate their homes should hurry up, as the Vilnius City Municipality is only accepting applications until 30 April. Considering the time it takes to prepare the necessary documents, residents wishing to receive support should make the necessary decisions as soon as possible and start collecting the documents needed for the application,” advises Mr Lysiukas.