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Julian Manduca
The Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity is preparing proposals to change the rent laws which are expected to be presented to the Cabinet by mid-June of this year, MaltaToday has been told.
A ministry spokesperson explained: “One needs to bear in mind that housing is a basic need and not a luxury. Any change, therefore, involves a balancing act between the needs of the tenants and the rights of property owners. Our priority is to ensure that people in vulnerable situations are protected, but concurrently make sure that owners are treated fairly.”
The spokesperson said that following the collation of all the necessary information and findings of the former Rent Laws Reform Commission, the Ministry is preparing proposals to address the various elements of the complex rent and housing reality which will be presented to the Cabinet.
When it first announced its battle cry, it looked like Alternattiva Demokratika would come out with all guns blazing. With screaming headlines on a ‘rent law referendum’, in 2004 the Green party chairman Dr Harry Vassallo announced that the party was “committed to start a campaign leading to a national referendum which will bring about the necessary changes in the country’s outdated rent laws.”
Vassallo said the campaign would involve the collection of thousands of signatures throughout Malta and Gozo, dubbing “an exercise in popular sovereignty through which the people themselves will vote to change an anachronistic rent regime which is suffocating the property market. They will bring about a change for the better.”
But the roar turned into a whimper as time passed and AD seemed to have sidelined its promise.
Asked about the matter last week Vassallo shifted the onus on the government: “Immediately after the launch of AD’s rent referendum campaign the country was promised a report from the ministry concerned ‘in the first half of 2005’. It was an initial success of the campaign provoking government out of its coma on the subject and promising a result.”
Asked why so little progress had been registered in AD’s plans for an abrogative referendum Vassallo told MaltaToday: “The Referenda Act has never been utilised before and the task before us is very significant. A petition signed by 10 per cent of the electorate is required before a referendum can be held. Preparations to organise the collection and vetting of signatures are underway.
“This part of the campaign must be self-funded since the state will only cover expenses for the actual referendum and a fundraising effort is underway also. We will also require significant human resources once the collection of signatures starts and this is now being headhunted. It is behind the scenes work that requires effort more than publicity.”
As to what exactly it would like to change in the rent laws Vassallo mentioned the creation of a “free and workable rental market” as the target of its campaign.
“Through the liberalisation of rent laws and through fiscal measures encouraging owners to rent empty properties, the supply of properties on the market will increase. This will have a deflationary effect on the price of property”.
According to Vassallo, since the referendum can only be abrogative it will be up to Parliament to replace the laws abrogated with a system “which ensures social justice to both tenants and landlords.”
It also appears that AD is pleased to be pestered on the issue and Vassallo told MaltaToday: “We are happy to receive many complaints that we are not doing enough. The victims of the present system have suffered enough and long enough. The government’s reaction has been a promise. We maintain a cautious cynicism towards all such promises.”
julian@newsworksltd.com
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