Maltese and EU nationals living in rented properties will no longer require their landlord’s permission to benefit from cheaper electricity rates after a long-running campaign ended in an agreement with the government on Monday.
The agreement comes at the end of a six-year saga which saw a group of some 100 EU nationals living in Malta institute a class-action suit against ARMS. The group claimed discrimination due to regulations making it inordinately difficult for them to benefit from residential rates, which are 30 per cent lower.
“This will not only help the EU nationals in our group, but lots of families renting in the private sector who are struggling with their electricity bills,” group spokeswoman Patricia Graham told the Times of Malta yesterday following a meeting with Minister without Portfolio Konrad Mizzi.
Ms Graham said that, to date, tenants required the permission of their landlord to benefit from the cheaper rates. Several tenants were also encumbered with pre-paid meters, sometimes paying up to 25 cents a unit compared to the residential rate of 10 cents.
Electricity pricing regulations divide household use into two separate bands: a ‘residential’ tariff for the primary home of Maltese citizens and a ‘domestic’ tariff, which is 30 per cent higher, reserved for second homes and non-residents. Water prices also vary.
Following the last general election, the group met with then-energy minister Dr Mizzi, who agreed with the EU nationals that presenting their tenancy agreement to ARMS should be enough to benefit from residential rates.
Yesterday, the group received confirmation that the government would push forward a change in law to this effect, pending the green light from the European Commission.
When contacted, Dr Mizzi said the government had already implemented a redress mechanism for those wrongly paying domestic rates, as well as accepting EU nationals’ ID cards as proof of residence, where before a registration certificate was required.
“This system, together with the changes which will be implemented in the coming months, will ensure fairness both for people in rented properties and foreign nationals,” the minister said.
Ms Graham said the change in law would come as a relief to tenants, who in some cases were being held hostage by landlords who were not paying tax on residential properties and who blocked their tenants’ attempts to secure residential rates to keep their situation under wraps.
She added that the group was aware of at least two occasions this year where tenants payed their bills only to be cut off when their landlords did not pass the money on to ARMS.