The government and Maltapost have been ordered to pay €60,000 to the owners of a requisitioned property in Hamrun after finding that the rent was too low. However, a request for the requisition to be lifted was turned down.

The owners of the property, at 18, Railway Avenue, said the property was requisitioned in 1985 and used by the then Posts Department for an annual rent of Lm120 (€280), which was subsequently raised to Lm166 (€387) in 1986. The property was then transferred by the government to Maltapost in 1998.

They argued that they were being deprived from their property in what constituted a breach of their fundamental rights. Furthermore, since the property, requisitioned for a public purpose, had been transferred to Maltapost, which was a private company, it was no longer being used for a public purpose and the requisition order should therefore be withdrawn and the property returned to its owners.

The court, presided by Mr Justice Tonio Mallia said 'public use' still applied since the property was being used for the provision of postal services for the public and he, therefore, turned down the request to return the property to the owners.

However, a balance had to be found between the interests of the owners and society.

He said that since the owners had launched procedures for redress over the low rent in 2009 the court was awarding compensation for loss of earnings for the past 10 years, calculated at €6,000 per year for a total of €60,000 to be shared equally between the government and Maltapost.