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.