Legal amendments addressing old rental problems, some of which had also been subject to decisions by the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, came into effect on Wednesday.
Through the amendments, owners of properties being rented out under old rental law provisions will be able to file a request for tenants to be means tested at the Rental Board.
If tenants are found to not have the means and sufficient resources to find alternative accommodation, they will be entitled to continue residing at the property, provided that they start paying the owners up to two per cent of the property’s market value at January 1 of the year in which the request was made, as well as other conditions the board may set.
If the means test established that the tenants had sufficient resources, the new amendments would not apply and the tenants would have to pay double the rent and move out in five years’ time.
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In a statement, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici described the amendments as ones which balanced the rights of owners and the tenants.
He said the Housing Authority would always be notified of cases so that it could be part developments in the sector and offer solutions, such as through adequate alternative accommodation, whenever it could.
As tenants or owners could be pensioners, one could be entitled to the assistance of a legal aid lawyer in the procedures, according to one’s means.
This system was also to be applicable to cases covered by a lease, sub-lease, or expired home rental contract due to a court decision based on a lack of compensation proportionality.
This meant that the amendments also applied to tenants condemned by the court to leave a property but who had not yet done so.
The minister said that regulations updating the means criteria were introduced simultaneously to reflect present day realities better.
This would ensure an adequate balance and prevent instances of genuine families and individuals being thrown out of their ordinary residence.
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