Fee-evading yacht owners to be evicted from marinas

The Malta Maritime Authority is clamping down on boat owners who default on yacht marina fees and use utilities on the pontoons indiscriminately, authority chairman Marc Bonello said.

"The situation is untenable and the MMA has resolved to take the bull by the horns," he told The Times.

The authority is on the verge of starting eviction procedures and forcefully removing boats from the berths in the case of failure to pay marina fees.

It is also planning to spend around Lm150,000 to install utility meters at its yacht marinas to curb the "indiscriminate use" of water and electricity.

"We are no longer going to tolerate berth holders who, frivolously and capriciously, think that the authority is going to waste time and energy chasing them to pay their fees," Dr Bonello said.

The MMA yacht marinas, at Msida, Pietà and Mgarr, have been established for around 12 years and accommodate about 1,000 berths.

Dr Bonello said the MMA had a waiting list of over 300 boat owners. Some berth holders were up to three years behind with their payments, despite the fact that fees were due six months in advance.

The number of boat owners who appeared not to value their berths and were consistently defaulting on payments was "surprisingly large", Dr Bonello continued.

The MMA has tried every means to get these berth holders to regularise their position, sending out reminders and ensuring they understand how serious it is to default on payment, but "we have come to the end of the line", he said.

The next step will be to take legal steps to control the problem, including the forfeiture of berths. The authority has the power to engage a contractor to remove a boat from a berth and any expenses incurred must be footed by the boat owners, Dr Bonello pointed out.

As regards the abuse of water and electricity, the installation of meters will be taken in hand in the winter, when the marina pontoons are less busy, and they should be in place by next season, Dr Bonello said.

In the near future, berth holders will be paying for the utilities, he said. As things stand, berthing fees at the MMA marinas include unlimited use of water and electricity. Some berth holders were washing their boats down and leaving the fresh water gushing out into the sea, possibly because they know they are not paying for it, Dr Bonello said.

According to the berthing assistants who monitor the marinas, some boat owners leave the airconditioning equipment on board running throughout the day for their boats to be "nice and cool" when they need to use them.

"This is simply not on. In a world where resources are becoming more expensive by the day, we have to be cost-effective."

Dr Bonello said that "gone is the time when we can say the water and electricity rates are so cheap that they can be included, as the icing on the cake, with the berthing fees".

The fees vary according to the length of the boat. But, on average, they cost about Lm500 per annum and are about 50 per cent cheaper than the rates at the private yacht marinas.

The MMA is also considering removing the discounts on berthing fees, which could amount to 40 per cent: boats built locally have a 25 per cent discount and those registered in Malta are entitled to another 15 per cent reduction.

These discounts cost the authority about Lm120,000 a year, Dr Bonello said.

Moreover, in view of freedom of movement and access of goods and services, under EU legislation the discount policy could be discriminatory, particularly in respect of member state nationals, and a level playing field has to be created.

Although it was not a priority, Dr Bonello said that in future he could envisage the possibility of streamlining the marina rates with those of private marinas. "The government cannot afford to subsidise the marinas, or be out of pocket for providing the service," he said.

Berth holders who were not abusing the facilities should not be adversely affected by the changes, Dr Bonello said.

He maintained that boat owners knew "in their heart of hearts that they have been using water and electricity for far too long a time for free. The fact that these changes are happening now is only too late".

The MMA has been looking at various options to rationalise water and electricity, as well as the capital cost required for the meters. A number of systems could be employed, including the use of utility cards that would be topped up when the units are used up.

Dr Bonello said the government's ultimate goal was for the MMA marinas to be privatised so that the MMA could focus more upon its regulatory role in the yachting industry.