News | Sunday, 22 February 2009

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Albert Mizzi ordered to vacate Valletta building in four months

Karl Schembri
Millionaire magnate Albert Mizzi has been ordered by the court to vacate a prime Valletta property by June after failing to pay rent for more than five years.
The eviction was ordered last Tuesday by the Rent Regulation Board presided by Magistrate Michael Mallia, who found that Mizzi had failed to pay the yearly Lm900 (€2,096) rent to the owners, B. Tagliaferro & Sons Ltd, between 1998 and 2003, when the lease agreement expired.
The property in question, Leisure House, in 30 Archbishop Street in central Valletta, is still occupied by Mizzi despite the amounts due to the company.
The rent board heard how in February 2003, the owners filed a writ in court against Mizzi, his son Alec, and his companies Cenmed and Hubbalit Developments Ltd, for having failed to pay Lm4,200 in rent dues since April 1998.
The tenant had to pay Lm900 yearly, six months ahead, but the only payment ever effected was of Lm300.
The court heard how the tenant had been renting the property since 1965. In 1995, both tenant and owner had engaged their respective architects to assess structural damages that required repairs, leading to an agreement in April 1997 in which the owners agreed to fork out Lm3,000 “for urgent structural works”, specifically to repair the dangerous structures including dangerous ceiling and corner balconies.
The final agreement signed by both parties specified that any expenses over Lm3,000 had to be paid by Cenmed.
Following the agreement, Mizzi was authorised to deduct Lm3,000 from his rent dues, but after structural works started, he notified the owners in July 1997 that there were other structural damages requiring repairs.
The owners replied that, according to the agreement, any expenses above the Lm3,000 agreed had to be borne by Mizzi. Yet the latter decided to deduct the extra expenses from the rent, and started sending cheques with the amounts reduced.
The owners insisted they wanted the full rent and kept sending back the cheques.

Eviction order
Magistrate Mallia observed that after inspections by the two parties’ architects, they had agreed about the structural works required and agreement. The agreement, accepted without reservations by Mizzi, stated the Lm3,000 figure as being “in full and final settlement of monies to be utilised to make good repairs as agreed”.
The ulterior works identified later by Cenmed and Mizzi were not covered by the Lm3,000 figure, so they had to be paid for by the tenant, who had no right to deduct anything else arbitrarily from the rent fees.
Magistrate Mallia added that from Mizzi’s architect’s assessment, it was clear that the damages identified later did not require urgent treatment. The owners had a right to refuse to accept a partial payment of the agreed rent fee, and to request Mizzi’s eviction upon termination of the lease agreement.
The owners are entitled to repossess the property if the lessee fails to pay rent punctually, the magistrate said.
Hence, Magistrate Mallia ordered Mizzi and the two companies to evict the building within four months of the sentence, and authorised the owners not to renew the rent, which expired in April 2003.
A director of B. Tagliaferro & Sons said the company welcomed the judgement.
“The company is grateful that the Courts of Malta have given us a bit of justice,” Milica Micovic told MaltaToday. “I also confirm it is not company policy to seek evictions of the socially deprived.”

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