Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/199842
14 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 27 OCTOBER 2013 2013 FROM PAGE 1 Constitutional Court gives landlords glimmer of hope to reclaim properties Illegal law The law found to be unconstitutional by the Maltese constitutional court is the Housing Decontrol Ordinance (1959), after the court found that Article 12(2) – which allows a temporary emphyteusis [Maltese: cens temporanju] to be converted into a permanent rental agreement – was "inconsistent" with the European Convention of Human Rights. Specifically, the Civil Code gives landlords the right to reclaim their property upon termination of a lease. But in 1979, the government passed a law to protect tenants so that – under the Housing Decontrol Ordinance – any lease of up to 30 years contracted before 21 June 1979, can be turned into a rent. The Court of Constitutional Ap- peal this week confirmed the first court's decision that tenants Andrè and Tessie Azzopardi could not avail themselves of this right at law to rent a property at Lm100 (€233) a year, after the lease terminated back in 1991. The Azzopardis previously paid an annual emphyteusis of Lm50 (€116), before the lease was automatically converted to a rental agreement. The rent at law could be reviewed every 15 years. The landlords, the heirs of Bartolomeo and Giuseppa Bezzina, said the law was preventing them from their right to enjoy their property as laid down in both the Maltese Constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights. The Bezzinas had leased out their Gharghur property to the Azzopardis back in 1974, for a period of 17 years on an annual rent of Lm50. In 1991, the Azzopardis availed themselves of the right accorded to them by the Housing Decontrol Ordinance, and started renting out the property for Lm100 a year. In their court application, the landlords said that the rental compensation itself was disproportionate, claiming the real rental value as verified by the court-appointed expert was €2,900 a year in 1991, €8,800 in 2006, and €9,800 in 2011. In the first decision, the Constitutional Court also ordered the Attorney General to pay the Bezzinas €30,000 in compensation for the rent, which has now been reduced to €15,000 on appeal. European decision Both the Constitutional Court and the Court of Constitutional Appeal referred to the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Amato Gauci versus Malta of 2009, and used the same reasoning. In the Amato Gauci case, the ECHR said that although governments were better placed to appreciate what is in the "general or public interest" – in this case Malta's housing needs – a fair balance had to be struck between the demands of the general community, and the protection of an individual's fundamental rights. Given the low rent payable in the Amato Gauci case, the European Court said that the Maltese government had "failed to strike the requisite fair balance" and awarded the landlord compensation. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt