The Stella Maris band club has accused landlords who are days away from evicting them of being greedy, as tensions between the two emerge into the open.
“It’s either culture, music and tradition, or a handful of people fattening their pockets using that which isn’t theirs,” a banner hung at the band club’s Sliema premises on Saturday reads.
The band club, which operates an Asian-themed restaurant and lotto booth from the premises, is led by Family Minister Michael Falzon, who serves as its president.
A court has ordered the Stella Maris club to vacate the premises on Wednesday morning, following a long-drawn-out court battle with landlords that stretches back years.
While the property is technically owned by the government, it is controlled by a group of private individuals through a temporary emphyteusis that dates back to the 19th century.
That lease will expire in 2026, after which control of the property will revert to the Joint Office.
While the government has tried to halt the band club’s November 23 eviction by offering the leaseholders money to cover the remaining period of the lease, the two sides reportedly remain very far apart.
Sources have told Times of Malta that the government has made an offer of around €250,000, which was rejected, and is likely to make a larger offer in the coming days.
However, landlords are demanding a far greater sum, reportedly close to €1.8 million, to allow the band club to remain in the building.
The legal battle that led to this point
The band club’s property woes began 12 years ago, when landlords accused the tenants of carrying out structural works – and applying for planning permits for those works - without their permission.
A court rejected that claim in 2017, but landlords appealed that decision. While that appeal was still pending, the government introduced a new law that would block landlords from evicting band clubs that carried out structural works without their consent.
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 nevertheless pushed ahead with their legal claim by taking objections to the country’s constitutional court, which found that the government law was unconstitutional and ordered that the eviction was to go ahead.
A court has said tenants must exit the club by 9.30am on November 23, and has instructed police to be present to oversee the eviction.