Joseph P. Borg, Swieqi
Redemption of ground rent
Minister Jason Azzopardi should be applauded for his recently announced scheme whereby tenants of residences can redeem the ground rent imposed on their residence and acquire the dominium directum of same. This scheme has a social conscience as it does away with the immoral acquisition and usurpation of buildings at the termination of the lease agreement, a right that is tantamount to the legalisation of robbery, a direct effect of the monopoly in land.
The scheme should be made available to genuine tenants of residential buildings, thus excluding commercial tenements and land.
The minister, as stated, is well aware that nearly a third of 5,500 applications in a similar scheme launched in 2001 have not yet been verified and settlement carried out due to government bureaucracy.
The redemption of these temporary emphyteuses should also include those which are of €20 or more, by the payment of an amount being 150 times the present yearly one.
Such redemption should be carried out by any lawyer by depositing the applicable amount at the Registry of the Courts, similar to the present redemption of perpetual ground rents, and after declaring that the person/s whom he is representing is/are the genuine and actual tenants. Any false declaration should nullify such redemptions.
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Simon Balzan
Feb 6th, 20:01
I think that the whole point Of Mr.Borg's proposal is to avoid what Mr.Lawrence Mifsud is saying as the delays are all unnecessary administrative delays . And with regards to Mr Calleja , may I remind him that Mr Mintoff and Mr K.Mifsud Bonnici were PMs for 16 years , maybe he should have expected them to do something about it then
Joseph Calleja
Feb 6th, 14:44
" Such redemption should be carried out by any lawyer". Mr Borg have you checked the fees charged by lawyers these days? Back to Minister Jason Azzopardi, when is he going to make it possible for me and my family to get our requisitioned property (taken over by squatters in 1974) back? GonziPN enacted the Derequisition Law, but I still cannot evict the squatter out of my property, because the same squatter is still living in this same house and then there is a daughter that lives there who will enjoy the property till she dies or flies away. Where is the justice in all this? When is Minister Jason Azzopardi going to act on this injustice? I, like many others would like to get our property back so our children will have someplace to call their own.
Mr Lawrence Mifsud
Feb 6th, 09:57
There are applications for redemption of GR from the Joint Office pending for a number of years. How long will it take to work out and finalize these requests? The new scheme will only make matters worse, by adding a pile of new files.