A couple and their baby son who narrowly avoided being crushed to death when the ceiling of their bedroom caved in have been awarded compensation of €30,000 as a partial refund of the sale price from the prior owner of the house.
Karl Rizzo Naudi and his wife Melanie, had purchased the 100-year-old Naxxar property in 2009 from Matthew Miceli Demajo for the price of €232,937. Works had been carried out on the building by the vendor when he had acquired the property in 2003.
On the day of the incident, in November 2011, the young couple had just vacated the bedroom after noticing some small loose stones falling down from the ceiling. Mr Rizzo Naudi went to fetch a broom to clear up the mess, while his wife began to transfer the baby’s toys to a cleaner space. It was then that the whole roof came crashing down.
Following their lucky escape, the family contacted the former owner of the house in the hope of reaching some form of settlement. When negotiations failed, the couple sued the man for the hidden defects which affected the value of their property.
The First Hall, Civil Court, presided over by Madame Justice Anna Felice, after hearing the testimony of various architects involved in works both before and after the transfer of the property to the Rizzo Naudi family, upheld the applicants’ claim.
The court observed that although Mr Rizzo Naudi had regularly noted dust on the bedroom floor, this did not imply that the family was aware of the structural defect in the ceiling. On the day of the incident, the amount of dust had been greater than usual and shortly after the first stones had fallen to the floor, the entire roof collapsed in a matter of seconds.
The court concluded that the works undertaken by the prior owner had likely weakened the ceiling which finally gave way. For this reason, the respondent was held responsible for the latent defects and ordered to refund €30,000 by way of the devaluation incurred by the applicants.
For this reason, the former owner was held responsible for the latent defects and ordered to refund €30,000 by way of the devaluation incurred by the applicants.