Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1356256
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 MARCH 2021 NEWS Delivery fee of just €1 per day for orders up to 5 newspapers per address To subscribe 1. Email us your choice of newspapers, recipient's name, address, contact number to production @millermalta.com 2. Forward cheques payable to Miller Distributors Ltd on address: Miller House, Airport Way, Tarxien Road, Luqa LQA1814 Queries on other news- papers and magazines, production@ millermalta.com maltatoday Same-day delivery of your favourite Sunday newspaper Monday-Friday MaltaToday Midweek • €1 BusinessToday • €1.50 Sunday MaltaToday • €1.95 ILLUM • €1.25 Support your favourite newspaper with a subscription https://bit.ly/2X9csmr Rental law changes challenged CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The Strasbourg court this week however said this interferes with landlords' right to property: "This procedure would allow an unmeritorious tenant – namely one who is not in need of social protection because he or she has not fulfilled the relevant means test – to continue occupying the premises for five years. The Court cannot accept that fol- lowing a favourable judgment of the constitutional jurisdictions... an aggrieved applicant must re- main the victim of an interfer- ence which no longer pursues a legitimate aim for at least five more years. In reality, more than five years, since that period only starts to run after the decision of the RRB, which, moreover, is amenable to appeal." The ECHR case concerns the owner of a decontrolled Għaxaq house, which had been leased on a 17-year contract at an annual Lm25 (€58) since 1968, and then sub-leased once again to a cou- ple. After the passing of the 1979 Housing (Decontrol) Ordinance, the sub-lessors retained the property under title of lease, at an annual rent of Lm50 as of 1999. In 2009, the rent was increased to €185, and then €197 in 2013, and €200 in 2017. During the tenancy the couple did not own any other proper- ty. The husband was on a low wage and was, for some time, unemployed. He is today retired and receives a pension of €515 a month. The property was valued at some €165,000. In 2017 Cauchi instituted con- stitutional proceedings, argu- ing that the 1979 law that gives tenants the right to retain pos- session of the premises under a lease, was imposed on her with- out a fair and adequate rent, in breach of the European Human Rights Convention. In 2018, Cauchi was awarded €20,000 in compensation by the Maltese courts, which declared that the tenants and their de- scendants could no longer rely on the 1979 Housing ordinance, as they had done for the preced- ing 34 years. That court said Cauchi was not receiving fair compensation in exchange for the burden im- posed by law. But it refused the eviction of the tenant, saying it was not the appropriate court to take such action. Instead it said the tenants should be prevented from relying on the Ordinance, in any future eviction proceed- ings. The applicant did not appeal, because the Constitutional Court was systematically reducing the awards given by the first instance courts. Cauchi was however unable to institute eviction proceedings, because the 2018 amendmenrts to the Housing (Decontrol) Or- dinance made it unlawful to pro- ceed with an eviction. She took the case to the Stras- bourg court, where the Maltese government submitted that Cauchi had lost her victim sta- tus after being awarded her due compensation. But the European Court of Human Rights decreed that the 2018 amendments are not a suit- able safeguard but another cum- bersome legal obstacle. Under this procedure, a ten- ant who qualifies under a means test can continue to reside in the property at a protected rent raised up to only 2% of the mar- ket value of the property. The increase was also at the wide dis- cretion of the Rent Regulation Board. And if the tenant did not satisfy the means test they would nevertheless be allowed to live in the premises for five years at double the rent currently being paid. "The Court has repeatedly found that although constitu- tional redress proceedings are an effective remedy in theory, they are not so in practice in cases such as the present one. "In consequence, they cannot be considered an effective rem- edy... concerning arguable com- plaints in respect of the rent laws in place, which, though lawful and pursuing legitimate objec- tives, impose an excessive indi- vidual burden on applicants," said the court. The Court said it "cannot ac- cept that following a favourable judgment of the constitutional jurisdictions, whether at first-in- stance or on appeal before the Constitutional Court, an ag- grieved applicant must remain the victim of an interference which no longer pursues a legit- imate aim for at least five more years. In reality, more than five years, since that period only starts to run after the decisions of the RRB, which moreover, is amenable to appeal." The court awarded Cauchi €20,000 in pecuniary damages and €10,000 non-pecuniary dam- ages plus €1,440 in costs and ex- penses in domestic proceedings.