Property owners accuse Mepa of breaching their rights

A couple yesterday filed a constitutional case against Mepa claiming that their rights had been violated when the authority threatened to take action against them over works carried out by a tenant without their knowledge. Jeffrey Azzopardi and his wife Rita filed their application against the chairman of Mepa.

The couple own a flat in Paceville together with others and had rented the flat to a certain Joseph Camilleri. In terms of the rental agreement, Mr Camilleri was entitled to apply to carry out structural alterations in order to join the flat with an adjacent property.

But Mr Camilleri had taken the law into his own hands and had started excavation works beneath the flat rented to him without a Mepa permit, the Azzopardis claimed. As soon as the owners found out about these illegal works they objected with Mepa. However, they were told that, in order for action to be taken, the consent of all the other co-owners of the property had to be obtained. Moreover, Mepa said that any enforcement notice that would be issued would be filed against the owners and not against the person who had carried out the works.

As a result, Mr and Mrs Azzopardi complained that they were being held responsible and condemned for the illegal works carried out by Mr Camilleri.

Once the tenant was made aware of the objection he immediately applied to sanction the works he had carried out. Mepa told the Azzopardis that the permit would be issued despite the fact that Mr Camilleri had carried out works on their property without their consent.

In fact, the couple pointed out that, as things stand, the law empowered Mepa to issue a permit to a tenant despite the objections raised by the property owners. As a result, in order to defend their property rights, the Azzopardis would have to start court proceedings solely because Mepa, as a public authority, did not give heed to the objections made by the property owners.

The Azzopardis also pointed out that once the permit was issued they would have no effective right of appeal through Mepa unless the appeal was based upon planning grounds.

They asked the court to find that their human rights had been violated and to provide them with a remedy including the annulment of all Mepa decisions in respect of the works carried out by Mr Camilleri. The court was also asked to condemn the chairman of Mepa to pay moral damages.

Lawyer J. Brincat signed the application.