MaltaMedia.com

On Saturday, the Hon. John Dalli, Minister for Social Policy launched an explanatory document on the rent reform. Following a consultation period, the rent reform bill has been passed through parliament and will come into effect on the 1st January 2010.

The new law establishes that, unless there is agreement in writing between the landlord and the tenant, the minimum value of the rent for a pre-1st June 1995 residential tenancy will, with effect from 1st January 2010, be €185 per year and that any rent higher than €185 per year will retain that higher level of value.

The new law also provides for an automatic increase in the value of the rent every three years by a proportion equal to the increase in the index of inflation. The first increase will take place on 1st January 2013.

Favourite Channel News reports:

With regards to commercial property, the value of the rent of a commercial tenement shall, with effect from 1st January 2010, increase by a fixed rate of 15% over the actual rent paid - with such increases taking place annually up to 31st December 2013.

Meanwhile, contracts for pre-1st June 1995 commercial tenements could be terminated within 20 years from 1st June 2008 – that is on 31st May 2028. This will happen if there is no contract of lease between the landlord and tenant which establishes a specific period for the term of the lease; or if there is a contract of lease for a specific period which, as at 1st January 2010, is still running and has not been automatically extended by law.

As from January 2010, the beneficiaries to the one-time right of the continuation of a Pre-1st June 1995 lease upon the death of a sitting tenant can be all children who have lived with the sitting tenant for four years out of the last five years before 1st June 2008 and continued to live with him until his death, where-in the lease will continue in solidum. The lease can also go to siblings of the sitting tenant under the same conditions as well as to siblings over 45.