The landlords of a large Sliema townhouse have rejected a government offer of €250,000 not to evict the Stella Maris Band Club from the property.
The band club is set to be evicted from its premises later this month, after more than a decade of legal battles.
The property's landlords, who hold a lease by temporary emphyteusis for the property until 2026, held a meeting with Culture Minister Owen Bonnici on Tuesday evening to discuss what it would take for them not to evict the club.
Sources said Bonnici offered the landlords around €250,000 in government-paid rent to allow the club to remain in the townhouse on Sliema’s Annunciation Square until the end of their lease.
The landlords are understood to have declined that offer.
"The two sides are very far apart, they're demanding more than €1 million," a government source said. "We think that's an unreasonable demand, given that the lease will expire in less than four years' time."
Landlords are understood to be factoring in compensation for lost earnings in previous years when setting their price.
Bonnici declined to comment when contacted, saying negotiations were still ongoing.
Should no agreement be reached by November 23, the tenants will have to vacate the premises. A police presence has been requested for that date, for fear that tempers may flare over the hotly contested property.
Family Minister Michael Falzon, who is the Stella Maris club's president, is said to be distraught that the club may be evicted.
A 12-year saga
If the eviction goes ahead, it will be the final chapter in a long-running saga, which has seen the landlords try and reclaim possession of the large townhouse on Sliema’s Annunciation Square for more than 12 years.
The Stella Maris band club has used the premises under a lease dating back to 1959 but the club has been there since the 1920s.
However, the landlords, a group of around a dozen people split across two families, had acquired the premises under a temporary emphyteusis dating back to 1876 which is set to expire in 2026.
The direct owner of the property is the Joint Office which was set up in the 1990s to administer properties transferred to the government from the church.
The saga started over 12 years ago when the landlords of the premises filed proceedings before the Rent Regulation Board in a bid to regain possession of the property leased out to the Stella Maris band club.
They argued that the tenants had carried out structural works without their consent and without the landlords being aware of the application for planning permits.
The Stella Maris band club had said the works were ordinary maintenance, needed to ensure the continued use of the property.
In 2017, the board threw out the landlords’ claim, triggering an application to the court of appeal.
A government policy attempt
As those appeal proceedings went on, the government introduced the 2018 legal amendment which blocked evictions of band clubs when they undertook structural works without landlords’ consent, provided the works were related to the “philharmonic or social activities... or activities performed by the band club” or when those works consisted of “improvements to the premises”.
That new law was to apply retroactively.
Just three months later, an appeals court found that, while the landlords’ claim deserved to be upheld, it could not approve the non-renewal of the lease.
Landlords had sought and obtained a constitutional reference concerning the matter since the retroactive application of the 2018 legal amendment could impinge on their rights.
The eviction date comes after the Constitutional Court in January threw out the appeals filed by both the club and the government to try and halt the eviction.
The court declared that in spite of the public interest to protect band clubs, there was no public interest in granting impunity to those who failed to fulfil contractual obligations they had freely undertaken, effectively confirming the position taken by the first court.