The co-owners of the building housing the King’s Own Band Club in Valletta were awarded €610,000 in damages by the European Court of Human Rights.

The King’s Own Band Club. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The Strasbourg Court ruled that the 24 co-owners of the band club, a bar and a restaurant in Republic Street were receiving rent that was far below the market standard.

In a 29-page judgment, it concluded that the way the rent laws were drafted violated their fundamental right to the peaceful enjoyment of property.

This is not the first family to wage a legal battle over measly rent paid out by Malta’s band clubs.

The Constitutional Court last July awarded €210,000 to the owners of the premises housing Żabbar’s Maria Mater Gratiae Band Club after confirming that rent laws had also breached their fundamental rights.

Shortly afterwards, the government had announced changes to the law meant to “safeguard” band clubs from eviction from their leased premises as a result of legal action taken by the landlords.

The co-owners of the King’s Own Band Club pleaded in Strasbourg they had been suffering an ongoing interference with their property rights and that the existing rent laws were discriminatory.

The imposing four-storey building had been leased by their predecessors to the Valletta band club in the 1940s against an original annual rent of £500. This was later converted to Lm500 (€1,164).

They submitted that the property’s market rental value was estimated at €269,100 annually in 2014, a far cry from the amount they had been receiving.

Lawyers Franco Vassallo and Joseph Camilleri, of Mamo TCV, insisted that the rent their clients had been receiving was extremely low, especially when considering the cultural and architectural value of the property as well as current real estate prices.

Yet, they continued, the Maltese authorities claimed that the property owners were not entitled to any more because the rent laws in force were binding.

Rent was far below the market standard

The co-owners had already been awarded €300,000 by the Constitutional Court in 2013 after they successfully argued that the rent laws were violating their rights. The amount was to be paid equally by the government and the band club.

That sentence was subsequently overturned, with the band club owners then taking their case to the ECHR.

The government, through the Attorney General, argued in Strasbourg that no violation of human rights had occurred and that the rent laws aimed at protecting the public interest.

The club had insisted it was observing the laws of the land for which it could not be held responsible.

However, the European Court on Tuesday unanimously decided there had, in fact, been a violation of the owners’ property rights.

It ruled that the Maltese government should pay the amount due within three months.