Eight owners of a former cinema in Qormi that has for years been leased to the Labour Party for use as a club, this morning filed a constitutional application claiming they where being deprived of their right to enjoy their property. 

The applicants – Clothilde Borg, Carmen Mizzi, Joseph Mizzi, Salvinu Mizzi, Vincent Mizzi, Isabelle Mercieca, Cecilia Dalli and Felicita Micallef –  claimed that a legal notice regulating the lease of property by political party clubs did not allow them to increase rent to reflect market prices. Neither did it allow them to review or terminate the lease in order to safeguard their right to enjoy their property.

The applicants filed the application, in the First Hall of the Civil Court, against the Labour Party and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who heads the party.

The issue revolves around their property, 137  St Bartolomew Street Qormi, that was leased to the PL to be used as a party club in 1951. 

The family had originally rented out the premises for Lm65 a year and that only increased to Lm85 in 2002 – or €197 a year –  after the death of their mother.

The applicants said that the rent being paid did not reflect the real value of the property, and they protested that the rent laws prohibited them from raising the rent and was prejudicing their rights.

They called on the court to declare that the rent paid to them, and the law, were in breach of their rights for compensation for the loss suffered over the years and to order an effective remedy that could include eviction or increasing the rent paid to them.

Lawyers Jason Azzopardi, Kris Busietta and Evelyn Borg Costanzi signed the application.