Victor Paul Borg explains the background and potential solutions to a situation that is keeping homeowners in Gozo awake at night

You could cut the suspense with a knife in a heavily attended public meeting at the premises of the Nadur local council on Saturday.

More than a hundred people crammed the hall, spilling into the corridor outside and down the stairs towards the front door of the premises.

The meeting was convened in response to the registration of two large tracts of land – amounting to around four football pitches – that has given the jitters to house- and land-owners, worrying that they could be dispossessed of their properties.

About three dozen houses sit on the two chunks of land that were registered at the Land Registry by the Benefiċċju Ta’ Sant Antonio Delli Navarra, an old foundation set up in 1675 by noblewoman Cosmana Navarra. The noblewoman placed vast lands in the east of Gozo under the foundation set up for religious purposes.

“I have never experienced such panic by people as in the last two weeks,” the architect Edward Scerri told the public meeting.

How did all this come about?

Last July, minister Ian Borg, then responsible for the Lands Registry, published a legal notice in which scattered patches of the Maltese islands were declared land registration areas.

Among those areas were some tracts of land in Nadur.

Last July’s law obliges owners of properties in the designated areas to register their property at the point of first transaction (when the land is sold or transferred), or to do so voluntarily. The Benefiċċju Ta’ Sant Antonio Delli Navarra applied to register two tracts of land last January 21 and February 12 under voluntary registration.

The chance of anyone being evicted from their home verges on fantasy

Sources have told this newspaper that the foundation’s registration was discovered accidentally by one of the property owners nearly two weeks ago.

Will people lose their homes?

The question that is worrying home owners most is whether they could be dispossessed of their property. Law-yers who have seen contracts of some of the people affected told this newspaper that the chances of this happening are remote.

The lawyers spoke of contracts that give their possessors freehold, which in theory gives them an unassailable hold on their property.

Of course, the question then becomes whether the foundation can produce documentary evidence that sows doubt on the research of notaries who drafted the deeds of the current property owners in the first place.

This would in theory question the validity of the freehold contracts.

In practice, this would not be easy. Legal experts told Times of Malta that, although there are no blanket unequivocal answers, the overwhelming majority of property owners appear to be safe. They said the chance of anyone being evicted from their home verges on fantasy.

However, owners of dwellings might encounter difficulties in the event of attempting to sell their property.

Potential buyers would expectedly be wary of buying property whose ownership is under contestation.  

What about the undeveloped portions?

Around half of the registered land consists of abandoned fields.

Analysts say there might be individuals who could potentially lose undeveloped land they might have a hold on, particularly since they might have neglected to keep their paperwork in order due to the fact that agricultural land has traditionally been deemed of low value.

They might also be tempted by foundation offers to buy their land.

Crucially, the abandoned agricultural land in the areas registered all falls within the development zone.

This means that, in theory, judging by the kind of five-storey blocks of flats being approved in Gozo, dozens of flats can potentially be developed on the portions of the land that is currently abandoned agricultural land.

As a comparison, on land at Ta’ Għar Boffa, in Qala, whose provenance goes back to the same people behind the foundation, more than 150 apartments are designated or in the process of being built on an area of around 10,000 square metres in a residential project being developed by J Portelli Projects.

The undeveloped terrain in Nadur tracts is slightly larger.

What’s next in the saga?

The next step for the property owners individually is to get their lawyers to file a so-called ‘caution’ at the Land Registry.

Beyond that, legal experts say that it would be fitting in the circumstances for the government to pass legislation that would curb these types of contestations. 

In the current febrile atmosphere following the tragedy of the collapsed home in Ħamrun last week, passage of legislation is imaginable; protection of citizens’ property from the rampant development interests has become a talking point.

Politicians, including the prime minister, have been falling over themselves to support property owners on the ground in Nadur.

Ironically, the politicians’ eagerness to support residents has even indirectly contributed to a sense of panic that in turn serves as positive feedback increasing the chances of this issue being settled through legislation.

Another possibility is that the government would revoke the Nadur registrations if any irregularities in the process are found.