The Malta Developers Association ppeals to the Government to urgently amend the law so that an anomalous situation on pre-1995 rents is eliminated.
In this regard, MDA is prepared to discuss the issue with government and other stakeholders so that a just solution is found to the problem and the law is amended accordingly, the MDA said in a statement.
It noted that our Courts have found – for yet another time – that the rent law regime that applies to pre-1995 rents breaches the fundamental rights of owners to enjoy their property.
This breach in the owners’ constitutional rights results from the situation in which owners are finding themselves being in the position where they can neither get their property back nor increase the annual rent received from tenants. Meanwhile, tenants keep expecting to pay the rent as established by a law that is unconstitutional.
The current so-called ‘rent reform’ skirts around this problem since it does not affect rents established before 1995.
It is ridiculous if all landlords in this position were to sue government with the Courts dealing with each request on a case-by-case decision. Apart from flooding the courts with unnecessary cases, expecting each landlord to fork out the expenses for a Court case until the case is won is also highly unfair, MDA said.
