Rent law reform study presented to minister

Contrary to what Alternattiva Demokratika says, rent reform is on the agenda in this legislature, Family Minister Dolores Cristina said yesterday.

Ms Cristina's comments come in the wake of a news item in The Times yesterday saying that AD will shortly launch a nation-wide petition to call a referendum so that the government would liberalise rent laws.

AD chairman Harry Vassallo said the Prime Minister had indicated that the reform of rent laws was not on the agenda in this legislature as he wanted a guarantee from the Labour Party that it would not resort to requisitioning houses before the reform was carried out.

"Rent reform is an issue that needs to be approached cautiously in terms of pre-1939 rent laws where we must ensure that while the vulnerable are protected and cared for, justice is done. A great deal of work has already been done by commissions set up in the past with the brief to study rent law reform," Ms Cristina said.

"The 1997 commission unfortunately did not hand in a final report of its findings, conclusions and recommendations. Three of its members are now members of the judiciary. All the members gave valid contributions and it would be a sheer waste of resources to set up another commission and start all over again. So my ministry has given Peter Grech a brief to go through all the workings of that commission and its sub-committees and to draw up a résumé of its findings.

"Dr Grech is now Deputy Attorney General but was a member of the 1997 commission itself. He has now completed his work and passed on his report to me. In a short while an inter-ministerial meeting will be held to discuss the findings.

"Within my ministry a study is also being carried out on profiling the owners and the tenants so that we may have a clear picture of the whole scenario.

"Rent reform is definitely very much on the agenda," she said.

Ms Cristina said Dr Vassallo seemed to have misunderstood what the Prime Minister said. Dr Gonzi, she went on, stated that the rent market was liberalised in 1995 but this did not have the desired effect of bringing more vacant property onto the rental market. Dr Vassallo seemed to have interpreted this comment as being a negative reply to the question of the need for a reform of the rent laws, she said.

"The truth is that the rent laws of 1995 liberalised the rental market without affording any security of tenancy to tenants who moved into post-1995 agreements.

"The knotty problem is the pre-1939 legislation that has frozen rents at very low levels with the result that in many cases these rents do not cover the cost of necessary structural repairs for which the owners are still responsible.

"In many instances these properties have moved from first generation to second generation to a third generation of tenants, with the owners themselves and their families being left out in the cold.

"Where no maintenance is carried out the result is sub-standard housing. Contributions to the press emphasise the fact that there exists an anomalous situation," Ms Cristina said.