A policeman is renting out a cockroach-infested Sliema house to around 16 tenants in a flagrant breach of planning regulations.

The tenants, which Times of Malta understands are mostly foreign workers, pay €250 each per month to share three bedrooms in the Norfolk Street house.

Defending the letting, 22-year-old constable Gosef Tanti, who sublets the house, claimed he lets out the property to so many tenants to cover high rent and utilities costs.

He blamed the cockroach infestation – video footage shows hundreds of the pests crawling inside kitchen cupboards – on the tenants, accusing them of being “undisciplined”.

Admitting he knew he was breaking regulations limiting the number of unrelated tenants to six per dwelling, Tanti said he did not think it was wrong, though he conceded it was “not fair”.

He said that, although he started subletting the house because he “just wanted money”, he now considered the tenants “friends” and would soon move them to “luxurious” alternative accommodation in Gżira.

Meanwhile, the owner of the house claimed he knew nothing about the number of tenants staying there, saying he had not visited the floor housing the tenants since renting out the property to Tanti in November.

‘Inhumane’

Former tenant Emeka, who asked Times of Malta not to publish his surname, said he took a bed at the Sliema property after encountering financial difficulties while studying in Malta.

He said he was attracted to the property by its low rent and “no deposit policy” but soon found the conditions at the house “really difficult”.

“I did my best to keep the place clean but there were 16 people... I should have been able to come home and relax but I was sad,” he said.

Calling the conditions at the property “inhumane”, with up to seven people sharing one room, Emeka described feeling powerless at the property, which he recently left: “What was am I going to do? They [Tanti] are Maltese; it’s their country.”

Tanti did not allow Times of Malta to enter the building when it visited on Friday but video footage provided by Emeka shows 11 beds in just over two of the three rooms used by the tenants.

According to planning regulations, a dwelling may only be occupied by either a family or “not more than six residents living together”.

‘I’m a policeman’

When Times of Malta visited the place, from the door it could notice furniture piled up on one side of the entry corridor and three men, including Tanti, on the ground floor.

Refusing access to the property, Tanti insisted that “no one can come here apart from the tenants; it’s in the contract... Even the police can’t come in without a warrant”.

When asked if the apartment was his main source of income, he admitted he also worked as a policeman.

While the police would not confirm whether Tanti was a member of the police force, citing data protection, sources said he was a constable and Facebook posts show Tanti graduating from police academy in October 2022.

Tanti claimed the police visited the house briefly at the start of August to check the work permits and Housing Authority documents of the tenants but found no issues.

He explained he rents the place from the owner, a lawyer and a longtime friend of his partner. He then sublets it to foreign workers.

“The lawyer doesn’t want to keep chasing people for their rent,” he said, adding the owner knew about the number of tenants staying in the property: “He comes here quite a lot.”

But when contacted, owner John Seychell Navarro claimed he rarely visited the place and did not know it was housing so many tenants.

“He [Tanti] didn’t even tell me about your visit,” he said.

Seychell Navarro said he had not visited the first floor housing the tenants since the start of the contract in November, instead only visiting the ground floor.

Asked if he had ever heard or seen anything during his visits that suggested more than six people might have been living there, he said he had not.

Seychell Navarro confirmed he knew Tanti’s partner, saying his father was a client and friend of his. He said knowing Tanti was a policeman had “put my mind at rest”.

Asked whether he thought it was right so many tenants shared the property, he said the house was “very big... but I think it [the number] is too much; for me, I wouldn’t like it.”

The net monthly profit

Tanti said he had been subletting the property for “about a year or so” and claimed that, while there had been around “16 or 17” tenants living in the property, some of them had since left. He claimed not to know how many people currently lived there.

He rejected any link between the overcrowding and the cockroach infestation, insisting there was “no discipline” among the tenants who he said left food out.

Tanti said he was aware more tenants were sharing the property than allowed by planning regulations but claimed he had to rent to that many people to cover his monthly rent of €3,500.

According to a copy of Tanti’s rental agreement with Seychell Navarro, seen by Times of Malta, he pays €2,500 per month. If subletting the house to 16 tenants, Tanti could net a monthly profit of €1,500.

When pressed as to why he did not instead rent out to six people at a higher rate, Tanti said it still would not cover his costs, claiming to spend €1,000 per month on utility bills. He added the tenants’ rental agreements were registered with the Housing Authority.

‘Luxury’

Tanti said that, although he did not live at the property, he “sometimes” visited.

“I just spend time with them [the tenants], buy food, sometimes we eat together,” adding he regarded the tenants as “friends”.

But he said that, by the end of the month, his ‘friends’ would be moved to a block of studio apartments in Gżira.

At first, I just wanted money, then, after a few months, we started building good relationships

“At first, I just wanted money, then, after a few months, we started building good relationships, so I said why not move them to a better place where they can have more privacy,” he said.

“At first, I thought I’d make a good income... but the problem is I’m not getting any income and these people are not feeling that comfortable.”

In December, Housing Minister Roderick Galdes promised to overhaul the rental system, announcing proposed amendments to rent laws and the civil code to prevent landlords from registering six tenants who are not part of the same family.

The proposed amendment passed a final reading in parliament in June but has not yet been signed into law.

'Selling Housing Authority contracts'

In separate developments on Monday night, lawyer Jason Azzopardi wrote on Facebook that Tanti had been spotted "selling Housing Authority contracts to anyone who needs them" on the same platform. 

Azzopardi said a company Tanti claimed to own and run, GJ Group – which Azzopardi said did not appear on the Malta Business Registry – appeared to be linked to Tanti's subletting activities, which he said amounted to more than 250 lease contracts on the Housing Authority register.