A couple are claiming they were duped by their notary after receiving a call from their bank informing them they had been repaying a loan on a property that is not registered in their name.
Josef and Jacqueline Bartolo had been injecting over €500 a month, for two years, into “nothing” because their notary had not registered their Msida apartment with the Land Registry.
They had paid him over €6,000 to cover legal searches, stamp duty and registration fees.
The Bartolos are just one of “several” first-time buyers who claim they have been defrauded by notary Pierre Falzon – who was extradited from Spain to Malta earlier this month to face criminal charges.
Sources said the police intended to open new cases against the notary after “dozens of reports” were filed by people claiming to have been duped. Several of these people were young couples who bought their matrimonial homes.
Dr Falzon, 51, of St Paul’s Bay, already faces three cases related to the misappropriation of funds. He failed to turn up for one hearing and sent a medical certificate issued by his doctor in Milan stating he could not attend the sitting because he was on a 15-day recovery period. He then travelled to Spain where he was arrested in Marbella on the strength of a European Arrest Warrant at the end of February.
He agreed to be extradited to Malta and, earlier this month, appeared before the Maltese courts that ordered him not to leave the island and hand over his passport and ID card.
Sources explained that before the police could arraign him over any of the new cases, they had to get the go-ahead from the Spanish court that sent him back to Malta.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, the Bartolos said there should be a system in place that allowed inexperienced buyers to check on their notary and the fees charged.
“Now we know that we should have received some form of receipt about the registration of our property... But at the time we didn’t know. We relied on our notary... Who can you trust anymore? Something needs to be done to help couples like us, who have no idea how things should work,” Ms Bartolo said.
Josef, 35, and Jacqueline, 27, have been together for five years and got married three years ago. After signing the promise of sale agreement in April 2008, the following year they signed the contract and moved into their new home.
“Just over a month ago the bank called and told me the flat was not in our name. I was dumbfounded,” Mr Bartolo said. adding that, for now, he would continue paying the loan. “We just hope we will not be asked to fork out the money we already paid and, literally, pay for someone else’s mistake,” they said.
Parliamentary Secretary for Land Jason Azzopardi recently said he would pilot a law that would offer greater protection to clients of notaries, who are entrusted with public funds.