Published on 10 January 2022

FIRST SECTION

Applications nos. 50473/20 and 55102/20 Simone GALEA and Dorothy BORG against Malta and Joseph Zammit and Anna Busuttil v. Malta communicated on 14 December 2021

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The applicants are Maltese nationals who are represented by lawyers practising in Valetta (see details set out in the Appendix).

The circumstances of the cases

The facts of the cases, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows.

The first applicant owns a property at 100/6 Nicolo’ Isuard Street, Sliema, which she inherited from her father in 2015. Her mother, the second applicant, has the usufruct over the property.

The case concerns an imposed lease as a result of the application of Chapter 69 of the Laws of Malta whereby the tenants were paying in 1987 EUR 502 per annum increased every three years according to the index of inflation as of 2009. In 2020 the annual rent payable was EUR 1,080. According to the court-appointed expert the annual rental value in 1987 was EUR 917 and in 2018 it was EUR 14,112. Thus, the market rental income which could be obtained over the relevant period amounted to EUR 241,840.

By a judgment of 30 June 2020, the Civil Court (First Hall) in its constitutional competence found, inter alia , a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1. Bearing in mind the guidelines in the expert report, and the choices and behaviour of the applicants, it awarded EUR 15,000 in pecuniary damage and EUR 5,000 in non-pecuniary damage. It declared that the tenant could no longer rely on the impugned law to maintain title to the property. Some of their claims being rejected, the applicants were to pay half of the costs of the proceedings. None of the parties appealed.

On an unspecified date the applicants entered into a new lease agreement with the tenants, which was no longer regulated by the impugned law.

The case concerns a unilaterally imposed lease under Act XXIII of 1979 amending Chapter 158 of the Laws of Malta affecting the applicant’s property in Paola as of 17 December 2007. At that time the annual rent payable was EUR 291, and in 2013 it increased to EUR 335, which would increase every three years thereafter. Its market rental value, according to the court ‑ appointed expert, was EUR 2,100 for the years 2007-2012 and EUR 5,800 for the years 2013-2018.

On 27 September 2019 the applicants lodged constitutional redress proceeding complaining that the application of Article 12 of Chapter 158 of the Laws of Malta, in particular Article 12 (2) breached their property rights. They specified that their claims referred to the period until 31 December 2018, without prejudice to any further action they might undertake to challenge the 2018 amendments to the law introducing the new Article 12 B.

By a judgment of 17 June 2020, the Civil Court First Hall in its constitutional competence found a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 as a result of the application of the law until 2018 and awarded EUR 15,000 in compensation. It noted that in their application the applicants had limited their claims to December 2018 and considered that the applicants had a new remedy to pursue in the light of the 2018 amendments for the future.

No costs were to be paid by the applicants.

None of the parties appealed.

In the meantime, on 3 July 2019 an agreement was reached by the parties whereby the tenants are paying EUR 2,400 annually, in the light of the 2018 amendments. The agreement will come to an end when the tenants die.

COMPLAINTS

The applicants complain under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention alone and in conjunction with Article 13 that they remained victims of the upheld violation due to the low amount of compensation awarded.

COMMON QUESTIONS

1. Has there been a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention in the present cases (see, inter alia , Amato Gauci v. Malta , no. 47045/06, 15 September 2009)?

2. Did the applicants have at their disposal an effective domestic remedy for their complaints under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1, as required by Article 13 of the Convention (see Portanier v. Malta , no. 55747/16, 27 August 2019)?

APPENDIX

No.

Application

no.

Lodged on

Applicant name

date of birth

place of residence

Represented by

50473/20

13/11/2020

Simone GALEA

24/01/1960

Sliema

Dorothy BORG

17/12/1933

Sliema

Michael CAMILLERI

Edward

DEBONO

55102/20

11/12/2020

Joseph ZAMMIT

03/06/1944

Paola

Anna BUSUTTIL

7/4/1956

Paola

Michael CAMILLERI

Karl

MICALLEF