There should be a mechanism that immediately provides victim of building collapses with alternative accommodation, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Friday.

He was speaking during a visit to the offices of the Malta Developers Association in Guardamanga, a short distance away from where three apartments collapsed in April of last year, as a result of construction work carried out in an adjacent plot.

One of the residents wrote on Friday how, nine months down the line, the families are still in limbo as no settlement has been reached. “You destroyed our house and we lost all of our memories. You destroyed our lives,” the resident wrote in a Facebook post.

Asked whether he felt that this was an injustice, the PM said there needs to be a balance between developers and residents.

Abela said he had been saddened by the incident and had intervened personally.

“Ideally these things should not happen, but if they do I believe we need a mechanism where residents are immediately provided with an alternative residence and other remedies to lessen the inconvenience as much as possible.”

The Housing Authority had said last year that the affected residents had been provided with alternate accommodation by the contractor who was carrying out the construction project.

But the residents had complained that they were not being allowed to pick up their possessions from their damaged homes, and that they could not return until the properties were repaired.

The Guardamanga case was just one in a string of building collapses last year. The incidents had led to the half of all construction projects until new building regulations were drawn up.