The owners of an apartment forming part of a prominent Valletta block, have been awarded €33,400 by way of compensation, following the umpteenth judgment declaring that rental laws breached landlords’ rights.
The case stemmed from an application filed by the Vincenti family in 2017, claiming that they were being deprived of the peaceful enjoyment of their property, a centrally-located flat which had, for many years, been used as the ordinary residence of the Herrera family.
The property at Vincenti Buildings had originally been granted to the occupants in 1974, under title of temporary emphyteusis for 17 years at an annual ground rent of Lm130.
Upon expiry of that term in 1991, the parties had signed a new emphyteutical concession for 21 years, at double the ground rent.
When that concession was about to expire in 2012, the parties signed a lease agreement for 15 years at €843.51 annual rent.
Five years later, the landlords instituted constitutional proceedings, claiming that the state of affairs amounted to a breach of their right to the peaceful enjoyment of their property in terms of the Constitution as well as under the European Convention.
The landlords argued that, in terms of the applicable legal regime, they had been forced into a lease agreement once the temporary emphyteusis expired and had to endure the renewal of that lease for an indefinite time.
Such a situation meant that they could not take back possession of their property, nor enjoy its full rental potential.
A court-appointed architect had estimated that in 2018 the market value of the apartment was €400,000, with a rental value of €16,000.
The First Hall, Civil Court, in its constitutional jurisdiction, presided over by Madam Justice Joanne Vella Cuschieri, observed that the applicants had been burdened by social measures imposed by laws which had been in force “for a long number of years,” resulting in a breach of owners’ rights.
The flat in question formed part of a “prominent” office block and although it was used as the lessees’ ordinary residence, the rent was nevertheless “mediocre”. The Court awarded the owners €30,400 by way of pecuniary damages relative to the term since the commencement of the lease in 2012.
The court awarded an additional €3,000 for moral damages.
The total sum was payable by the State “who was responsible for the promulgation of laws” and whose duty it was to ensure that those laws did not result in an unjust and disproportionate loss of equilibrium between personal rights and State obligations.