The Malta Developers Association has called on the government to amend Rent Laws relating to rents established before 1995.

In a statement on Sunday, it referred to a court decision which found that this section of the law breached the fundamental right of owners to enjoy their property.

Owners were finding themselves in the position where they could neither get their property back nor increase the annual rent received from tenants. Meanwhile, tenants kept expecting to pay the rent as established by a law that was unconstitutional.

The current ‘rent reform’, the MDA said, skirted around this problem since it did not affect rents established before 1995.

“It is ridiculous if all landlords in this position were to sue government with the Courts dealing with each request on a case-by-case decision. Apart from flooding the courts with unnecessary cases, expecting each landlord to fork out the expenses for a Court case until the case is won is also highly unfair.”

MDA appealed to the government to urgently amend the law so that this anomalous situation was eliminated. 

It said it was prepared to discuss the issue with the government and other stakeholders so that a just solution was found and the law was amended accordingly.