Labour Party evicted from club in Santa Venera after 50 years
Landlords were targeted by a requisition in 1967
The Labour Party has been ordered by the rent regulation board to vacate the Santa Venera club premises it has occupied for over 50 years.
Landlords of the property located at 362, St Joseph High Road, filed proceedings with the Rent Regulation Board in July 2023, seeking the eviction of both the Housing Authority and the PL.
The property owners had been targeted by a requisition order in 1967, and their Santa Venera property was handed over to the PL in 1973.
The requisition order was annulled by a 2009 judgement, which also handed the landlords a compensation of €75,000. This was appealed and reduced to €60,000.
In 2022, the property owners were awarded a further €161,240 in compensation by a court after the tenants continued to pay a nominal amount of rent, breaching a lease agreement.
In both judgements, the courts found that the PL's tenancy was in breach of the landlord’s property rights.
However, till then, the landlords had not requested eviction.
On the basis of these judgements, the board declared on Wednesday that the PL no longer had the right to invoke the relevant law as a defence for its tenancy.
Therefore, it ordered the PL's eviction.
However, the board found that the applicants failed to show that the Housing Authority has possession or is a tenant of these premises.
The board dismissed the landlords’ request to evict the Housing Authority.
The applicants were assisted by lawyers Edward DeBono and Nicholas DeBono.