The tenants of a Vittoriosa store forming part of the Santa Skolastika Monastery have been ordered to vacate the property, after an Appeals Court found that the place was no longer being used and had been left neglected.

The decision overturned a previous judgment handed down by the Rent Regulation Board, which in 2013 had rejected the Church’s request on behalf of the monastery.

The property in 26, Triq il-Miratur, Vittoriosa had been rented to George Attard 50 years before. Mr Attard died in 2014 while the case was still pending, with the Church's bursar subsequently continuing the case against his heirs.

The store had originally been rented for commercial purposes. The plaintiffs argued that the property was no longer in use, to the point that its entrances had been blocked from the outside. This was confirmed by nuns living in the overlying monastery, who testified that they never saw any activity going on.

The tenant argued that in reality access to the property had not been blocked, since it was linked to six other adjacent stores. This was confirmed during an inspection by the Rent Regulation Board architects, who also observed that a number of wooden boxes were scattered all over the place.

In its decision the board had noted that the plaintiffs had tacitly consented to the manner in which the store was being used, as they still accepted the rent payment. Furthermore, the board had concluded that not enough evidence had been brought to prove that the store had suffered structural damages due to the tenant's lack of maintenance.

The monastery had subsequently appealed the decision, arguing that the board had ignored the technical report compiled by its own architects on the structural state of the building.

In its decision the Appeals Court presided by Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti said it would not enter into the merits of the first court’s judgment unless exceptional circumstances arose.

However, it expressed its disagreement with the board’s conclusion that the plaintiffs had not brought sufficient evident to back their claim that the property was no longer being used in line with the original agreement.

The architect’s report showed that the place had not been in use for years, and such conclusion contrasted sharply with the property’s intended commercial use, the appeals court noted.

The Judge also pointed out that the late Mr Attard had never testified, and no evidence was brought to determine if his son was still in the same line of business (regettier).

Furthermore, the court said that a 2007 survey carried out by the board’s architects had confirmed that the property was in a bad state of repair. The fact that the store was interconnected with adjacent properties did not detract from the fact that it was being rented separately from the remaining stores.

While acknowledging that the monastery was still receiving the rent, it was not possible to verify what was actually going on as the entrances had been blocked.

Consequently, the court revoked the board’s decision and ordered the tenant to vacate the property within two months.