The government is expected to make a second cash offer to a group of landlords threatening to evict a Sliema band club from its premises, after an initial approach was rejected earlier this week.
The landlords of a large Sliema townhouse rejected a government offer of €250,000 not to evict the Stella Maris Band Club from its premises and sources said a second larger offer is expected to be made in the coming days.
Talks are at a very delicate state- Minister Owen Bonnici
Culture Minister Owen Bonnici, whose ministry is leading the negotiations, would not comment on the matter when approached on Friday.
He would only say that talks were at a “very delicate stage” and he did not want to say anything that could undermine the negotiations.
However, sources said that the landlords were asking for as much as €1.8 million, with the government understood to be considering an offer that would come in lower than half that amount.
Eviction date set for Wednesday at 9.30am
The band club is set to be evicted from its premises, situated on Sliema’s Annunciation Square, this coming Wednesday at 9.30am after more than a decade of legal battles.
If the eviction goes ahead, it will be the final chapter in a long-running saga, which has seen the landlords try to reclaim possession of the large premises 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 split across two families, had acquired the building 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.
Saga started over 12 years ago
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 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.
As those appeal proceedings went on, the government, in 2018, introduced a legal amendment which blocked evictions of band clubs when these undertook structural works without the 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.