The Housing Authority has been ordered to pay compensation of €50,000 to the owners of a house in Qormi for breach of human rights as a result of a requisition order.

Mr Justice Silvio Meli delivered this judgement following an application filed by siblings Edward and Cynthia Zammit Maempel against the Authority and against Jesmond and Carmen Abela.

The Zammit Maempels had inherited the house in Qormi from their father. It was requisitioned in 1992 and allocated to Jesmond and Carmen Abela by title of temporary emphyteusis. When the emphyteusis expired Mr and Mrs Abela continued to occupy the house and offered the owners an annual rent of just under €280. The rent was not accepted by the Zammit Maempels.

In their constitutional application the Zammit Maempels claimed that they had received no compensation from the authorities following the requisition and that the house was now unoccupied and in a very bad state of repair. They requested the court to find that their fundamental human rights to enjoyment of their property had been violated and to give them a remedy including the restitution of the house.

Mr Justice Meli said that although the house had been abandoned and was not lived in the requisition order was still in force. The Housing Authority, said the court, was bound to act in the public interest and was bound to requisition property only for the purposes of allocating it as a dwelling. This was not the case here, as the house was uninhabited and abandoned. The requisition order was therefore unjustifiable.

The court added that a disproportionate and excessive burden had been placed upon the Zammit Maempels and that their rights had been violated.

The court annulled the requisition order and ordered the Housing Authority and Mr and Mrs Abela to return the possession of the house to the Zammit Maempels. The Authority was also ordered to pay €50,000 in compensation.