The Government has announced a proposed solution and legislative intervention to the current pre-1995 leases crisis, where landlords can revert to the Rent Regulation Board to ask for an increase in rent capped at a maximum of 2% on the market value of the property. The government has expressed its commitment to subsidise this increase in rent for the tenants up to a maximum of €10,000. With regards to tenants who meet the criteria and minimum requirements in terms of assets and income, the Rent Regulation Board will be authorised to give the tenants up to 5 years chance to find an alternative accommodation.

Contacted by the Times of Malta for his reaction to the proposed government amendments to the law regulating pre-1995 leases under Chapter 69 of the Laws of Malta, Associate Dr Nicholas DeBono emphasised that:

“The amendments are the first step in the right direction to creating a balance between landlords and tenants, however, this is certainly not enough in terms of the landlords receiving adequate compensation for the money they lost throughout the years by not being able to rent their property at the fair market rental value.”

The Times of Malta goes on to report that while the government ensured that any extra costs for tenants would be subsidised, “nothing has been proposed vis-a-vis landlord compensation. Debono warned that, given the lack of proportionality between the potential rental income lost by landlords over the years and the amounts awarded in the civil court, landlords would end up resorting to the European Court of Human Rights.”

The full Times of Malta article is available here: https://bit.ly/3bd1xyu