“Ignorance of the law is no excuse” and, therefore, it cannot be used as a defence.

“Sorry officer I was unaware of the 30mph speed limit.” Caught doing 60.

Makes sense to me

In many respects, there are laws that we are all aware of or should be.

It’s against the law to carry a firearm in your airline luggage.

Makes good sense.

When it comes to paying utility bills there is one law. You use it, you pay for it and if you don’t, you will be cut off (for most).

Makes sense to me.

However, where is the law that says a person renting a property in Malta should be aware of the ‘unwritten law’ that their landlord has a ‘right’ to charge them the higher domestic rate for their utilities and, for that matter, succeed in suing the ‘ignorant’ when that tenant refuses to pay more than the residential rate?

Surely to make such an abomination legal it would have to be clearly written on the supposedly ‘Legal letting agreement “Lessee agrees to pay €100 per month against utility charges, based on the domestic rate” as opposed to “Lessee agrees to pay €100 per month against utility charges.”

Anything else would most certainly be deception.

I can imagine that people considering a move to Malta will have done their homework, whether in terms of cost of living, schooling, job opportunities, etc, but how many would even think of checking whether their rental property will be charged at a higher rate, simply because they are tenants?

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