A court has awarded €180,000 to a family which had had three flats in Merchants Street, Valletta requisitioned in 1963, on the basis that it had suffered a disproportionate hardship.

Mr Justice Anthony Ellul, presiding over the First Hall of the Civil Court, delivered this judgment in a constitutional application filed by Walter Delia, Mary Anne Delia, Robert Delia, Yvonne Delia, Joseph Delia, Mariella Grech and Wintrade Ltd against the Chairman of the Housing Authority. 

The family told the court that in 1963 the government had requisitioned the said flats and had allocated them for housing purposes in 1975.  The family had filed judicial action so as to be authorised to not recognise the new tenants and their action had been upheld by the Court of Appeal in 1992.

The flats were derequisitioned in 2009, but this notwithstanding they were still occupied by the persons to whom they had been allocated by the authorities as residences.  In all this time, the family had not received any rent from the occupants of the flats, but had received Lm1,000 per annum from the Housing Authority for the said three flats.

Mr Justice Ellul said that this was not a case of a de facto expropriation, as the property had remained in the family's ownership ever since the requisition order had been issued.  However the family's right to the enjoyment of its property had been impeded with and the court found that the government's right to provide social housing had placed a disproportionate burden on the family.

The court-appointed architect who had valued the flats concluded that they were worth almost €800,000 in their entirety.  The compensation awarded to the family of Lm250 per flat per annum (€575 approx) was miserly, said the court.

In conclusion the court found in favour of the family and awarded it €180,000 in compensation on the basis that it had suffered a disproportionate burden.