Why do certain persons who should know better insist on treating all vacant properties by the same yardstick? The latest exposé is by John Consiglio (November 9).

I agree that some action must be taken but to tax indiscriminately would only complicate matters even further and add more woes to the long suffering landlords. I shall mention just a few of the reasons, by no means exhaustive.

The jigsaw puzzles of inner cities, where, on the same plot, inter-weaved, are a number of ‘dwellings, many not even fit for habitation, and single-room tenants lacking the most basic facilities and services. Known as kerrejja, these were dwellings lumped into the middle of a block with a single entrance and no windows to the street but only to an internal yard. There were no toilet facilities or running water. A common tap and WC served the whole block.

Another reason is the encumbrance of additional rooms, with genuine rights dubious and built in stealth, which hinder any development but which have been in existence for more than 30 years. I am willing to conduct a guided tour to such places, including large houses, mainly in Valletta, where the entrance hall was turned into a shop, depriving the house of any access.

There there are garnishee orders, actions by Mepa, actions by a commercial bank, or a commercial company that went bust. Grand old houses, mainly in the Sliema area, occupied by a single aged person at ridiculous rent. Such houses would invariably be suffering from water seepage and growing mould. Untold number of heirs, where one person stops all the others from taking any commercial action.

Last but not least, innumerable building plots that hinder and hamper the development of an area. As the law stands, the government has to pay the owners to open a street and then, in turn, they will not pay any road contribution.

This is a classic Gordian Knot. Taxation will not solve any of these problems. The only way forward is for an urgent inventory and detailed study to cover all cases and the enactment of an ad-hoc law to tackle such quandaries.