On the approval of the residential leases law by Parliament, whilst the Malta Developers Association is pleased that several suggestions it had put forward have been taken into consideration, it regrets to note that the new law will effectively diminish the freedom of contract between landlords and tenants of residential properties.
As much as the objectives of the law are positive in ensuring standards of fairness, clarity and predictability in contractual relations, its effects must not be allowed to negatively affect the feelgood factor of the industry and the appetite for more investment in this sector, especially in high end properties.
The MDA advises that in the long term the new law may lead to a lose-lose outcome for both tenants and landlords, yet it is confident that as the Government has done in other instances before, it will carry out more fine tuning in the near future, so as to address the law’s negative effects that the Association has been highlighting all along.
The MDA feels it has worked hard to improve this important legislation throughout the entire process and at this point advises all landlords to seek reliable legal advice before entering into any new contractual agreement