Attorney General ‘analysing problems’ with 1979 rent law

The Attorney General is currently "analysing problems" with a 1979 rent law, after a judgement of the civil court of the first instance ordered five families to be evicted from their homes.

As pressure on the Maltese parliament to amend the law intensifies, five families from Paola were told by the court they had to evict their homes as they were occupying the property "in an illegal manner".

Popular TV presenter Augusto Cardinali and his wife are two of the individuals facing eviction.

Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Owen Bonnici told MaltaToday the government was "studying" the cases. "The judgement of the civil court of the first instance is going to be appealed, so we have to wait and see how it develops," he said.

Admitting that the 1979 rent law was problematic, Bonnici said the government was seeking to remedy the situation, which goes beyond this particular case.

"Meanwhile, we are studying the rent law as government is committed to finding solutions," he said.

Bonnici revealed that the Attorney General has been asked to analyse the problems with the law.

This is the umpteenth court judgement to find the 1979 rent law in violation of the landlords' human rights.

Similar judgements have sent shockwaves around the property market, as tenants now fear they could end up evicted from their residences. Lawyer John Vassallo, one of the lawyers representing the families, argued that notwithstanding the court's role to protect the rights of the landowners, it must not ignore those of the tenants.

A recent decision by the Court of Constitutional Appeal also brought renewed certainty to landlords' claims that the Maltese government must change rent laws and allow property owners to take just compensation for rents on pre-1979 agreements.

The decisions confirmed that a law that automatically converts temporary leases contracted before 1979, into permanent rental agreements, was contrary to the right to enjoy property as laid down in the European Convention of Human Rights.

Under Article 12 of the amended Housing Decontrol Ordinance, any lease of up to 30 years contracted before 21 June 1979, can be turned into a rent. As a result, tenants living in houses on a temporary lease have retained the right to stay in these houses, and pay an annual rent equivalent to double the annual lease they paid.

In this particular case, Gianella Annati, Margerita and Emanuel Valletta, Augusto and Doreen Cardinali, Sarah Rita Mansour and Mario and Maria Barbara had a piece of land in Paola passed to them through the family.

The properties in Triq il-Foss and Triq Athlone passed from one generation to another since November 1887, when their ancestors took over the land from Josephine Bugeja against a 99-year temporary emphyteusis of Lm2.42 annually.

The land actually belonged to Bugeja's aunt before she inherited it.

In May 1987, the temporary emphyteusis expired and the residents asked the court to have the lease converted into a perpetual one against payment of the annual ground rent multiplied by six, in terms of the Housing Ordinance.

Six years later, the Court upheld the plaintiff's request and in 2001, a Court of Appeal confirmed the first court's decree and upheld its decision that the ground rent was to be converted from a temporary to a perpetual one.

But Bugeja, and later her nephew Ray Bugeja, appealed the judgement and in separate but identical judgements, Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi upheld Bugeja's claims that the Housing Ordinance violated the right to enjoy one's own property and a request for the conversion to a perpetual emphyteusis to be declared null and void.

Contacted by MaltaToday, 77-year-old Emanuel Valletta and his wife Margerita, 74, said the court's judgement was like a bolt out of the blue.

"We didn't expect it because we already had three previous judgements which ruled in our favour. We have been living in this house since 1985. Even before we built our house, we consulted different lawyers who told us we had a right to build on the land," the tenant said.

Similarly, 60-year-old Mario Barbara and his wife Maria, 58, said it was "unjust" that they were facing eviction even though they had abided by the law.

"This case would not have been going for 30 years if we were completely at fault. But we followed the law and we won three cases," he said.

He said that when he and other family members approached Bugeja's aunt showing interest in buying the land, they were turned away by the landlords. The property owners started refusing the rent, in the first of their legal steps to contest the unfairness of the law. The tenants, in order to show that they had not lost interest in the land, started paying the rent by depositing it in court.

On their part, the Cardinalis preferred not to release any comments to the media. Speaking on their behalf, lawyer Johann Debono said his clients did not wish to release any information until legal proceedings are filed in court in the coming days. "This is to safeguard their interest and the interest of appropriate legal justice to be done and seen to be done," he said.