A family is calling on the Labour Party to vacate two properties requisitioned from them in 1980, ostensibly for use by the government but later transferred to the party.
Franco Grima and the Ellul Sullivan family said in a court application on Tuesday that they were being paid a miserly €1,000 in annual rent for a large seafront house in the centre of Pretty Bay, Birżebbuġa and a next door property which has been linked to the club.
In a judicial letter, the family said that the large house, which was previously used as a hotel, had first been requisitioned by the Housing Authority to be used as a telephone exchange and a health clinic.
It was subsequently transferred to the Labour Party club.
Another house which was also appropriated on Triq id-Duluri was annexed to the same club.
The Housing Authority insisted at the time that the property remained requisitioned in its favour, the family said.
Malta has been repeatedly reprimanded for breaching the European Convention of Human Rights through its rent law, which remains unchanged despite multiple judgments in favour of property owners.
Back in March the European Court of Human Rights said in a judgment that Malta should “put an end to the systemic violation of the right of property”.
The court also encouraged the government to pursue measures aimed at remedying the situation - “speedily and with due diligence under the supervision of the Committee of Ministers”.
Read: Pressure is mounting for a repeal of the 1979 rent law
In the judicial letter the family said its fundamental rights were being breached by the Attorney General on behalf of the Government of Malta and the Labour Party.
According to Fenech and Fenech Advocates, the family's legal team, the rent received by the owners was not the market value of the property in question and could not be further increased due to the limitations imposed at law. The fair balance expected between the needs of society and private owners was not being respected.
The family will also be filing a constitutional application in the coming weeks demanding damages and eviction.