The Residential Leases Act came into force on January 1st, 2020. I will be writing a series of information blogs which will hopefully help you become more aware of your rights and responsibilities under the new rent law.
This first blog in the series will include details of how to make sure that your rental contract is compliant with the Residential Leases Act. Every rental contract must contain the seven essential requirements listed below in order for the registration process of the contract with the Housing Authority to be conducted as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
This first blog in the series will include details of how to make sure that your rental contract is compliant with the Residential Leases Act. Every rental contract must contain the seven essential requirements listed below in order for the registration process of the contract with the Housing Authority to be conducted as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
If the contract does not contain one or more of the above seven essential requirements, then it will not be possible to register the contract with the Housing Authority and the contract will be null and void. Please note in particular the inventory, which is often forgotten.
Also please remember to get your landlord to sign Arms Form N - Verification of Pending Dues. This will zero the Arms bill so that you will not pay for the bills of previous occupants of the rental property. Please click on the link below for a copy of Arms Form N:
Also please remember to get your landlord to sign Arms Form N - Verification of Pending Dues. This will zero the Arms bill so that you will not pay for the bills of previous occupants of the rental property. Please click on the link below for a copy of Arms Form N:
| n-_authorisation_of_verification_of_pending_dues.pdf |
Finally please remember to ask your landlord to sign Arms Form H - Change in the number of persons declaration. Your landlord will complete Section A of this form; all the occupants of the rental property will complete Section B. Landlord and occupants will have to also provide copies of photo identification. This will make sure that you are on the correct residential utility tariff for people living in their primary residence. The default tariff is the second home tariff which is extortionate, especially for water. The only way to be on the correct utility tariff for people living in their primary residence is via Arms Form H. Please click on the link below to download this form:
| h_-change_in_number_of_persons_declaration_31072015__1_.pdf |
For a standard rental contract taken from the very useful and official Housing Authority rental website, please click on the link below:
| long-private-residential-leases.pdf |
The landlord must register the contract with the Housing Authority within ten days of the commencement of the lease. If the lease is registered after ten days then there will be an additional fee. If the landlord fails to register the contract within the ten days, then the tenant can register the rental contract at the expense of the landlord.
It is in both your interests and the interests of the landlord to make sure that the contract is registered. If it is not registered, neither party will be able to access the protection provided by the Residential Leases Act or the Maltese Civil Code. Moreover, neither party will be able to submit a dispute. The facility of submitting an online dispute costs 10 euro and a decision will be made by the Dispute Panel within 5 working days of last submissions. There are many clauses in the new rent law which protect the tenant from various problems to do with renting, for example, the overpayment on their consumption of water and electricity and the unjustified retention of their deposit. I will be looking at these in more detail in other blogs. This means that a tenant will definitely win a dispute if, for example, they are on the incorrect Arms tariff for people living in their primary residence.
If the landlord refuses to register the contract and the tenant cannot register it because it is missing one of the seven essential requirements, then there is the option of reporting the tenancy. This will mean fines / prosecution in a criminal and / or civil court of law for the landlord plus the Housing Authority fixing the rent for the tenant at below market rent rates. The Housing Authority will first have to establish that the tenant is indeed living in the rental property.
One final note. Please do not be surprised if your rental contract contains clauses which are forbidden clauses, listed under Article 7 of the Residential Leases Act. The Housing Authority has limited resources. It registered circa 30 000 rental contracts in the first year of the Residential Leases Act, and therefore is unable to check the minute detail of every clause of every contract. These clauses will hopefully die a natural death as more and more letting agents / landlords / tenants learn more about the intricacies of the 2020 Residential Leases Act. Rest assured, however, that these clauses are completely without effect. Therefore you can ignore them completely and with no ill effect. Also, please rest assured that the Residential Leases Act and the Maltese Civil Code trump any clause in any rental contract, no matter what any letting agent or landlord may tell you.
If the landlord refuses to register the contract and the tenant cannot register it because it is missing one of the seven essential requirements, then there is the option of reporting the tenancy. This will mean fines / prosecution in a criminal and / or civil court of law for the landlord plus the Housing Authority fixing the rent for the tenant at below market rent rates. The Housing Authority will first have to establish that the tenant is indeed living in the rental property.
One final note. Please do not be surprised if your rental contract contains clauses which are forbidden clauses, listed under Article 7 of the Residential Leases Act. The Housing Authority has limited resources. It registered circa 30 000 rental contracts in the first year of the Residential Leases Act, and therefore is unable to check the minute detail of every clause of every contract. These clauses will hopefully die a natural death as more and more letting agents / landlords / tenants learn more about the intricacies of the 2020 Residential Leases Act. Rest assured, however, that these clauses are completely without effect. Therefore you can ignore them completely and with no ill effect. Also, please rest assured that the Residential Leases Act and the Maltese Civil Code trump any clause in any rental contract, no matter what any letting agent or landlord may tell you.
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