The Stella Maris band club, in Sliema is set to be evicted from its premises later this month, after more than a decade of legal battles.
The eviction is set to take place on November 23 at 9.30am and police presence has been requested as tempers may flare over the hotly contested property.
Contacted for comment, a spokesperson for the band club said he had not yet been formally notified of the date but said he understood it was imminent.
The property’s landlords have been informed of the eviction date, however, a spokesperson said they were still being cautious.
“This has been a long road and, as far as we are concerned, the eviction hasn’t happened until it happens,” the spokesperson said.
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.
A presence since the 1920s
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 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.
A years-long court battle
In 2017, the board threw out the landlords’ claim, triggering an application to the court of appeal.
As those appeal proceedings went on, the government introduced the 2018 legal amendment which blocked evictions of band clubs when these 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.