Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/981272
NEWS | SUNDAY • 13 MAY 2018 maltatoday 2 €10,000 a year as a part-time driver CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The board will also con- duct a means test of the ten- ant, that will be based on the income between 1st January and 31st December of the year preceding that when proceed- ings are filed, and the capital of the tenant on the 31st De- cember of the said year. Where the tenant does not meet the income and capital criteria of the means test, the board shall give judgement al- lowing the tenant five years to vacate the premises. The compensation for occu- pation of the premises payable to the owner during this peri- od will amount to double the rent which would have been payable. If the tenants do meet the means test, the board will give due account to the age of the tenant and the disproportion- ate burden to the landlord, to determine a gradual increase in rent. The owner will be allowed to demand the dissolution of the lease "if he can prove through unequivocal evidence that the tenant is not a person in need of the social protection" pro- vided by the law. The Bill also says that where the Housing Authority or the landlord have offered alterna- tive accommodation suitable to the tenant with a guarantee of "at least 10 years for a rent not in excess of that payable had the tenant continued the lease", then such tenant will not be deemed as in need of social protection. The Bill is the first example of what the government had already intimated in an ac- tion plan to the Council of Europe's office for the execu- tion of judgements, to create a mechanism for the revision of the rent, limit the inherit- ance of tenements, introduce a means test, and also create measures to revert the leases to their owners. Landmark decision Under the 1979 Act, which amended the Housing Decon- trol Ordinance, a temporary emphyteusis gets automatical- ly converted into a permanent rental agreement. But this was found to be il- legal by both the Maltese Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights. Although the Civil Code gives landlords the right to reclaim their property upon termination of a lease, in 1979 the government passed a law to protect tenants so that any lease of up to 30 years con- tracted before 21 June, 1979, can be turned into a rental agreement. This limited the revision of rental payments, allowing tenants to pay paltry sums annually. As a lawyer representing such landlords once told this news- paper three years ago: "Thou- sands who were leasing homes in the seventies went on to enjoy these properties at low rents, and then bequeathed these contracts to their chil- dren, leaving landlords no op- tion but to accept measly rents for houses often worth mil- lions on the marketplace." The property landlord Chris Testaferrata Moroni Viani, had described the situation with MaltaToday as a "mass injustice on landlords. " In October 2013, the Court of Constitutional Appeal con- firmed a landmark ruling that found that the automatic con- version of temporary leases into rental agreements, was illegal. In the case, the Court of Con- stitutional Appeal confirmed that tenants Andrè and Tes- sie Azzopardi could not avail themselves of the 1979 Act to rent a property at Lm100 (€233) a year, after the lease terminated back in 1991. They previously paid an an- nual 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, had leased out their Gharghur property to the Azzopardis back in 1974, for a period of 17 years on an an- nual rent of Lm50. In 1991, the Azzopardis availed themselves of the right accorded to them by the Housing Decontrol Or- dinance, and started renting out the property for Lm100 a year. The landlords claimed that the real rental value as verified by the court-appointed expert was €9,800 in 2011 – just an example of the sheer dispro- portionality of the rents Additionally, the govern- ment had to pay the Bezzinas €15,000 in compensation for the rent, just the kind of natu- ral consequence to the unjust law that the government can no longer tolerate. Amato Gauci ruling The seminal ruling that is forcing the Maltese govern- ment to amend its rent laws is the Amato Gauci case, which Malta lost in 2009 in the Euro- pean Court of Human Rights. In the Amato Gauci case, the ECHR said that a fair balance had to be struck between the demands of the general com- munity for housing protection, and the protection of an indi- vidual's fundamental rights. Given the low rent payable – just €210 in annual rent in the Amato Gauci case – the Euro- pean Court said that the Mal- tese government had "failed to strike the requisite fair bal- ance" and awarded the land- lord compensation. The house had been leased out for Lm90 in 1975 for 25 years, and was later converted into a rental contract in 2000 – without the consent of the owner. The European Court of Hu- man Rights is considered to be the third level in judicial rem- edy – once the government is found guilty of compromis- ing the right of the landlords to enjoy one's property, the ECHR holds Malta liable for damages and demands chang- es to the law. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Tenants will have to undergo means test In October 2013, the Court of Constitutional Appeal confirmed a landmark ruling that found that the automatic conversion of temporary leases into rental agreements, was illegal