The landlord of a house in Sliema has been awarded €100,000 by way of compensation after a judge found that his right to the enjoyment of his property had been breached by the old rent law regime.
The house owners had been deprived of their human right to enjoy their property when they were forced to accept the paltry sum of just over €300 a year for the rental of their house in the heart of Sliema, the First Hall of the Civil Court in its constitutional jurisdiction established.
Madam Justice Joanne Vella Cuschieri was ruling in the case brought by Nicholas Paris, the owner of a house in Howard Street, against the state attorney and the tenant who passed away while proceedings were still under way.
The court heard how the property originally belonged to the landlord’s grandfather and then passed on to his mother by way of inheritance.
In 1976, the property was rented out to tenant Edward Ellul Sullivan for a period of 17 years. However, in 1993, when the lease was up, the tenant invoked his right to remain in the Sliema property which, according to the 1979 rent laws, had become his ordinary place of residence.
The landlord failed to prove his case before the Rent Regulation Board so he filed constitutional proceedings claiming a breach of his right to the enjoyment of his property. The tenant passed away last year and the landlord regained possession of his property.
A court-appointed expert valued the property at €700,000 and also declared that the rental value was meant to be €2,916 a month. Instead, the tenant was paying €326 a year.
Madam Justice Vella Cuschieri ruled that the 1979 law “created a forced relationship between the landlord and the tenant for an indefinite time which led to the deprivation of the owner’s absolute right to enjoy his property and makes it almost impossible for the owners to regain possession of their property within predictable and definitive time although in receipt of minimal if not absurd compensation.”
While the old rent law certainly satisfied the element of social need back in 1979, it had created a situation which was unfair towards landlords and property owners.
The judge observed that various courts were unanimous in their consideration that the 1979 law “created such a disproportion between private rights and the general social interests and needs for which it was enacted, that it gave rise to infringements of human rights.”
The court, therefore, ordered the state advocate to pay the landlord €96,500 in pecuniary damages and a further €4,000 in moral damages as well as the costs of the entire court case.