Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/809226
10 Couple wins €374,000 who sold them MATTHEW VELLA A 13-year long saga is nearing its end, after the Maltese courts ordered a de- veloper to pay back over €374,000 to the young couple who bought a mai- sonette on land that was not even the developer's to sell. Elton and Cheryll Penza acquired their Tal-Ibragg maisonette overlook- ing the Mejxu valley, for Lm35,000 in 2002 – only to realise that the land it was built on was government-owned and did not belong to them. The family was thrown in disarray at news that, less than a year after ac- quiring their house, it turned out that the formerly Church-owned land had been transferred to the government. Years in court and extensive re- search on land titles would however reveal how the uncertain provenance of the land was kept hidden from the buyers: a land transfer whose dubi- ousness was pointed out by Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti. First libels, then the truth When MaltaToday first reported the case, it had already revealed a previ- ous case of collusion in 2004 between Gozitan businessman Domenico Savio Spiteri, of Spiteri Holdings, and Raymond Aquilina of Terra Mediter- ranea – the latter company being the seller of the land to the Penza couple. The two companies had been accused of having trespassed on the land in the area known as Ta' Giakondu, in the Swieqi-Madliena area, in a civil case filed by the landowner, the marquis Marcus Marshall. When MaltaToday reported both this and the Penza case, Spiteri and Aquilina filed five libel suits against the newspaper. By 2006, the two men themselves had fallen out, with Spiteri demanding that Aquilina vacates land he owned, for not having paid him in full. But the tragedy of the story in 2004 was the fact that the Penza couple were then facing eviction from their own home. "We cannot see how or where we got it wrong," they had told Mal- taToday back then. "But wrong it is as towards the end of last year we were given the fright of our lives when we were officially informed by the Lands Department that the maisonette we 'purchased' from Terra Mediterranea was built upon Government land and that therefore 'our' maisonette was ours no longer but was the property of the Government of Malta." It was through Spiteri Holdings that Aquilina, of Terra Mediterranean, had acquired the land at Triq Wied Mejxu, which he later developed and then sold to the Penza couple. In court, the evidence presented by the Penza couple confirmed reports first published in MaltaToday. No 'peaceful possession' Originally, the land in question had been transferred as part of the 1992 Church-State agreement to the Joint Office, which administers the lands transferred from the Church to gov- ernment. But the land itself was only finally registered – a process through which the Joint Office finally registers the Church land as government prop- erty – in 2003. Terra Mediterranea, which sold the maisonette to the Penzas, however insisted that the land had been ac- quired from Spiteri Holdings in 2002, and that its ownership originally came from Spiteri's acquisition of the 1826 inheritance of the priest Paolo Xuereb. This inheritance, bequeathed to the Balzan parish church to administer it, was the source of much trouble for the Penzas. In 1995, the priest Renato Valente – a former rector of Mount Carmel College and the principal of an Eng- lish-language school in Kappara – was appointed as the testamentary execu- tor of the Xuereb will, replacing the sickly Fr Rafel Gauci, who had been entrusted with executing the will. The sale of the inheritance to Spiteri Holdings had to be first be cleared by a court of law, especially since the lands in question had been left abandoned and an inventory of assets was also missing. Fr Valente himself told the court that Domenico Savio Spiteri was aware of the problems concerning the disputed land, and that Spiteri was ready to absolve the seller of the guarantee of "peaceful possession" – a requirement guaranteeing the land being sold is not contested by other third parties. maltatoday, SUNDAY, 9 APRIL 2017 News GPD confirms fishing co-op presented fake invoices in court JURGEN BALZAN THE Government Property Department has confirmed that the Ghaqda Koperattiva tas- Sajd presented false invoices in court, in the case brought by a sub-lessor who was being evicted by the co-operative after it had ille- gally leased part of the government building. Last week, MaltaToday reported that Lam- busa Maritime Company Limited had been ordered to vacate the premises it was sub- leasing from the Ghaqda Koperattiva tas- Sajd, which was itself served with an eviction notice in 2015 by the Lands Department. Lambusa Maritime Company Limited's owner Angelic Mifsud vacated the building on Monday after handing over the keys to a court marshal. Speaking to MaltaToday, Mifsud had said that the co-op presented invoices in the court case, showing that it had paid its lease to the Government Property Department (now the Lands Authority) for 2016-2017. "This makes no sense. Why should anyone pay a lease which has not been renewed?" Mifsud asked. The director of the Government Property Department, Peter Mamo, confirmed that the invoices presented in court did not per- tain to the premises at 150, Xatt is-Sajjied, Marsaxlokk. "GPD have not received any payments for the property at 150, id-Dwana, Xatt is-Sajjieda, Marsaxlokk for 2016 and 2017," Mamo told MaltaToday. The invoices seen by MaltaToday – pre- sented in court to prove that the co-op still has a title on the premises – are addressed to Koperattiva tas-Sajd Ltd, Dar is-Sajjieda, Xatt is-Sajjieda, Marsaxlokk, which is the address of a separate co-operative which has a title over a structure at the other end of the Mar- saxlokk seafront. Moreover, the invoices show that the pay- ments were made from an account belonging to Koperattiva tas-Sajd Ltd. In June 2015, the co-operative was in- formed by the GPD that its lease would not be renewed, and was given up to the end of December 2015 to vacate the building. The GPD ordered the eviction because the 1982 agreement between the government and the co-op prohibits sub-letting of the premises. But this was breached more than once. The GPD's Lands Department had investi- gated at least three instances when the co-op illegally sub-let the premises. Over the years, part of the premises for which the co-op pays just €700 in annual rent, was used as a fish shop, an insurance broker office, and more recently as a fish packaging and storage facility run by Lambusa Maritime – who paid €36,000 a year for the sub-lease. After the eviction order, Mifsud stopped paying the sub-lease. The co-op is however still using the building, because the GPD nev- er enforced the eviction. Asked why the GDP has not enforced the eviction, Mamo said "the ex-recognised ten- ants and occupier were tangled in a sensitive court case and therefore, since the case was sub-judice, it was felt better to await the final judgment." Pressed on whether any action will be taken now that the court case is over, Mamo said "the Lands Authority will be taking appropri- ate action in due course." After vacating the premises on Monday, Mifsud said he duly handed over the keys to the court marshal but said the cooperative might attempt to obtain the key from court. "Given that the cooperative has not been kicked out and are still making use of the premises, what guarantee do I have that the cooperative does not gain access to the facili- ties?" Mifsud said he had invested over €1.5 mil- lion in freezing and packaging facilities for use in the premises, which he now can no longer make use of, almost bringing his busi- ness to a complete standstill. MaltaToday is informed that following the publication of last week's report, the Ghaqda Koperattiva tas-Sajd's secretary Paul Piscopo was convened by the board of Cooperatives Malta, where Piscopo serves as secretary- general. However, sources said that Piscopo did not show up for the urgently convened meeting. In November 2016, MaltaToday reported that government slapped the Ghaqda Kop- erattiva tas-Sajd with a judicial letter after it failed to pay a €95,407 loan granted in 2002. The latest accounts published by the coop- erative show over a seven-year period, it has lost over €200,000 as it went from a surplus of €25,000 in 2007 to a loss in 2014. The 2014 audited accounts gave the coop- erative an adverse opinion because it failed to recover over €56,000 from its commercial debtors and suffered a €37,105 loss. "I have paid the cooperative around €289,000 over the past few months, so the obvious question which comes to mind is 'where has that money gone?'" Mifsud said. Court victory vindicates MaltaToday reports on property developers who sold Ibragg land on misleading contract "Inexplicably, and despite a court decree saying the land had to be sold without guarantee of peaceful possession, the contract of acquisition by Spiteri Holdings was manifestly in contradiction to the court order." The GPD did not enforce the eviction because "the ex-recognised tenants and occupier were tangled in a sensitive court case… it was felt better to await the final judgment."