Government is obliged to change archaic laws and respect Constitution

The Government should not continue to breach the rights of landowners and the Constitution and should immediately start an exercise to revise all the archaic laws on land and property use which have been repeatedly condemned by the Courts.

Noting the latest Constitutional Court judgement, in which, after years of litigation, it was once again concluded that the current Agricultural Leases (Reletting) Act breached the Constitution, the MDA calls again onto the government to stop immediately these injustices.

The MDA insists that a serious government is morally and legally bound to protect all its citizens from any form of injustice, even if these happen to be against owners of land. During the past years, the government continued to discriminate against land owners and looking the other way despite that it was found in breach of the highest law of the country,  the Constitution, and the European Convention of Human Rights.

Underlining its position against all forms of discrimination, the MDA will continue to insist that these outdated laws, which were put in place decades ago in a completely different economic scenario, are adjourned to reflect today’s realities.

While it is not fair that tenants are not protected, the same yardstick should apply to landowners, who lease out their properties to third parties.

Unfortunately, so far, all Maltese administrations have ignored several appeals made by the MDA, including the need to tackle injustices concerning the pre-1995 rent laws.

The MDA calls upon all landowners to join its landlords’ section to form a common front and insist on a correction these flagrant injustices.