The Pender Gardens project in St Julian’s is mired in a land ownership dispute, with residents of an adjacent apartment block claiming that a strip of land bordering the site – and which was sold to Malta Government Investments Ltd (MGI), and later to Penderville Ltd, for development into the Pender Gardens residential complex – is in reality their own property, as has been for 40 years.
The contested territory takes the form of a private garden across the road from Haven Lodge: a residential unit, home to 27 tenants, bordering the 250,000 square metre Pender Gardens construction site. A site map published by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) in March 2005 – shortly before MGI made a call for offers for the project proposal – delineates the plot in question as part of a “temporary surface car park” belonging to Maltacom plc, on which the same authority later issued the permit for the Pender Gardens residential complex in 2005.
But irate Haven Lodge residents have contacted MaltaToday, insisting that this plot forms part of the footprint of their own apartment block, and that ownership of the garden is shared equally by all 27 residents. As such, the residents claim that neither Maltacom plc nor MGI Ltd had any legal title to the garden, still less the right to sell it to third parties for the purpose of development.
In support of their claim, residents have produced copies of a contract, together with annexed site plans, which illustrate that the area now occupied by the fringe garden was one of a number of plots sold by Mgr Ignatio Sciberras Psaila, provost of the St Helena Basilica in Birkirkara, to John Mary and Francis Portelli in 1966. The land was subsequently developed into the present Haven Lodge apartment complex, comprising 27 flats, a private road, and the same fringe garden which residents now claim was “annexed” to Pender Place without their consent.
Strangely, however, this 1966 contract was not unearthed during the official searches undertaken by Penderville Ltd’s notaries – among them, Labour deputy leader Charles Mangion – when the property was bought less than two years ago.
The controversy only came to light when Penderville informed Haven Lodge residents of their intention to demolish the garden in order to build an underground car park. The developers also offered to rebuild the fringe garden once the car park was completed; but residents argued that any development on or underneath their garden would inevitably devalue their property in the long term.
It was only then that the astounded residents were informed that “their” property had actually been transferred to Penderville Ltd as part of the Lm10 million sale of the Pender Place/Mercury House plots on 22 December 2005.
A number of meetings have since been held between residents and developers, but no agreement has to date been reached. While Haven Lodge tenants are now contemplating legal action if work commences as planned on the underground car park, the developers have warned that they will be held liable for any damages arising from delays on account of this impasse… damages which could conceivably run into hundreds of thousands of liri.
Penderville Ltd’s managing director Peter Diacono acknowledges that the issue is as yet unresolved, but insists that the company enjoys full legal title to the land after it was legitimately sold to them by Malta Government Investments Ltd two years ago.
“The matter is now in our lawyers’ hands,” Mr Diacono told MaltaToday, adding that he was “not satisfied” with the evidence produced by Haven Lodge residents in support of their ownership claim. Diacono also minimised the possible impact of this dispute on the development, claiming that the underground car park forms part of a later phase of the project.
For his part, Mimcol chairman Ivan Falzon also claims to have been taken aback by the sudden emergence of this controversy, which he only got to know about three weeks ago.
“MGI bought Pender Place from Maltacom plc on 20 June 1998 and sold it by tender to Penderville Ltd under the same conditions, boundaries and plans as when originally purchased,” he said. “We are surprised to note that this issue was not raised and contested when Maltacom plc sold the land to MGI.”
Contacted separately, both Falzon and Diacono pointed out that the deed of sale was subject to all the usual notarial searches, and that any claim of ownership of the plot in question should have surfaced during these searches. “It is now up to the residents to substantiate their claim over the land,” Mr Falzon said.
Meanwhile a spokesman for Investments Minister Dr Austin Gatt echoed the same arguments raised by Penderville and MGI: “Before your questions, the Minister was not aware of the claim you refer to. It should be said that convention in Malta is for searches on titles on property to be conducted by the notary nominated for the deed by the buyers. This was also the case in this case.”