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Plain as the nose in your face

31/5/2016

4 Comments

 
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It is somewhat heartening to see the topic of poverty and the rental market in the spotlight at the moment.  Many articles have been written on this topic in the last few weeks.  The talk on Poverty and Homelessness organized by the ‘Alleanza kontra l-faqar’ was also a very encouraging  move in the right direction.

I would like to add my two cents’ worth from our experience of living in Malta:  Even working professionals fall under the category of ‘poor’ in Malta.

We were possibly an extreme case.  We moved to Malta in 2010.  My UK teaching salary of about                
40 000 pounds sterling per year dropped to  about 18 000 euro per year.  I was told that I had to start from scratch – my 15 years of UK teaching experience was ignored.  This is in breach of freedom of movement of EU workers and I am pursuing this.  However,  I still consider that 24 000 euro per year at the top of the Teacher Salary Scale, reached after teaching for 15 years, is still not good enough.

On our move to Malta, Eric did not work for about a year.  Not for want of trying, but that’s another story.  So we were living on 1 000 euro per month (my teaching income).  ‘We’ are a family of 5 – our daughter was studying at a Scottish university, and, in 2010, our younger children were 5 years old and 2 years old.  Our rent was 550 euro per month and our Arms bill, on the incorrectly applied ‘domestic’ tariff, designed for owners of empty or occasionally used second properties, was about 150 euro per month.  So we were meant to survive on 300 euro per month. 

http://www.newsbook.com.mt/artikli/2016/5/17/familja-b-zewgt-itfal-trid-EU954-fix-xahar-ghall-htigijiet-essenzjali-caritas-malta.45978/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
​

I would expect that a teaching salary in a civilized country would be able to support a family of 5, for a while, at least.  I would expect it to cover housing costs, energy bills and living costs easily.  It was very humiliating and I must say, terrifying, to be parents of small children, and feel that you were not able to support them.  I don’t think that I will ever forget that first year. 

If it weren’t for relatives lending us money, and for an inheritance, we would not have been able to survive on 300 euro per month.  Why should we ever have been placed in that situation in the first place? 

The car we brought over from the UK incurred annual car licence fees on a sliding scale starting from about 500 euro.  We have now reached the ceiling.  From now on we will pay a 762 euro ACL fee every year.  If we had moved to Malta before 2009, we would have paid about 200 euro per year.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s refusal to do anything about rampantly rising rents, charged with impunity by tax evading landlords, should be seen in this perspective.  The CARITAS study assumed that housing costs were minimal because it was assumed that poor people would be living in social housing.  http://www.illum.com.mt/ahbarijiet/socjali/45456/mintoff_trid_kontrolli_fuq_ilprezz_talkera#.V04EMvl97IV

But as you can see from the breakdown of our living expenses in 2010, the rent of 550 euro per month was more than half of our income.  As the founder of the Malta Tenant Support Facebook group,  I have seen rents rise exponentially in the 6 years since then.  How on earth are professional people meant to survive on their meagre salaries if they rent?  How is it possible that Joseph Muscat cannot see that he has no option but to control this huge rise in rents?

People who have a home loan on their own property are not often faced with rising payments.  Their payments are mostly fixed for the length of their loans.  They have security and are able to live more serene lives.  People who rent are at the mercy of the whim and fancy of the landlord who may decide not to renew the contract when this expires.  Upheaval, rent increases, no peace of mind are the lot of the tenant.

For those of you who say “Buy”: if people are paying extortionate rents, how are they meant to save for the 10% deposit needed to buy their first property?  How are their salaries meant to be enough to afford the monthly payments?

Every civilized country tinkers with the ‘free’ rental market.  This isn’t about capitalism, free markets, or stocks and shares.  It’s about housing policy and making sure that there is a range of housing options to suit different needs at different times of people’s lives.

http://www.illum.com.mt/ahbarijiet/politika/45421/62200_ma_setgux_iallsu_self_jew_kirjiet_fl2014#.V04FF_l97IV

Refusing to cap rents or to regulate the long let rental market is just not an option.  It cannot be an option.  This is as plain as the nose in your face.    

​For those who want to see, that is.



4 Comments
Arleen Jose Barlow link
1/6/2016 02:09:18 pm

I am so glad to read this article, I thought it was just me worrying about the future here. I came over 25 years ago and had 2 fabulous landlords who were both gentlemen. Neither put my rent up in 10 years, and I left the flats totally refurbished because of this. Now my new landlord is a different kettle of fish.All smiles when I did the contract, but 3 years of hell after. For a start, I didn't know we had no planning permission, and as a result the bills came in on one cable at Industrial rate. I flatly refused to pay it and all the tenants stuck together to fight it. Then one by one they left, leaving me alone. The planning Dept gave retrospective permits for the flats and so we were asked for 466€ to be paid in one weeks notice to have the meter changed. I did so and went to ARMS for them to work out my bills on residents rate with my meter readings, and paid her exactly that and no more. Then it started.... she asked me to come in to see her and started shouting, but I stuck to my guns and said no way am I paying these bills. In the meantime she refused to sign form H for the other tenants who are still paying residential rates. Because of this, she then sent me after 4 years, a bill for the ramps which EVERYBODY uses as the pavement is far too high. I am wheelchair bound and had them done when I took the flat.I rang the Disabled organisation and they said they would take her to court as she is responsible, but honestly I've had enough. NOW I find everybody has a 10% price increase in the contract after 3 years, and I wanted a 10 year contract,she reluctantly agreed to a 5 year contract renewable after that, but then put a 15% clause in it. I just got my new contract and my rent has gone up 15% compared to everybody else's after 3 years of 10%.I had no increase in my pension this year and also no 200 pounds for the bad weather payments as the Government stopped them both this year, so I am 800 per year worse off this year, and my rent increase was 50€ Very worried.

Reply
Johanna MacRae
1/6/2016 03:10:27 pm

Hi Arleen

No, we are so not the only ones. This tenant despair is widespread. Something definitely needs to be done. What appalls me is that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is adamant that he is not going to interfere with the 'free' rental market. He doesn't seem to understand his responsibility to make sure that everyone living in Malta has access to decent, secure, reasonably priced housing. This is a keystone of good governance.

As things stand at the moment, salaries will have to rise or rents will have to be controlled.

If salaries rise, then it will be the employer that will have to foot the bill.

If rents are controlled then landlords will still be in receipt of (probably undeclared) rental income for doing something as unskilled and untalented as letting out their property. But it will not be the huge amounts they are currently getting. Income from rents increased by about 8 million euro between 2013 and 2014.

It will not be the taxpayer who will have to fork out for higher salaries.

It's a no brainer, really.

Does Prime Minister Muscat want to see more homelessness and more social problems caused by poverty? Or does he want to behave responsibly and tackle this housing problem?

While he's at it, I would love for him to tackle the rampant landlord tax evasion. I resent having to PAYE while this criminal tax evasion goes on.

Reply
Max
1/6/2016 07:26:30 pm

Malta should pay more attention , the "economic" wind can turn quickly and they risk to be left with no money and no sustainable economy, greed is pervading their hearts. When they ask for an increase or a crazy high rent amount ( or sick premium for commercial premises ) they should be aware they are signing their own failure unless they invest the money in something else immediately ( and abroad, I add ). Someone tells me " you know, it's a manner of demand and supply " and in EU we are all striving for our little corner of tranquillity but, you know what, I feel like We are the products and someone from above make us move abroad and make us spend our saving in the hope of living decently.
If people is united we could make the prices fall or salaries grow but I say, we have to think as a Country. In this situation the rich will be richer and the poor will work only for surviving.
The problem is that some people can barely see beyond their own nose, ignoring they have one even in front of a mirror.

Reply
Johanna MacRae
1/6/2016 07:56:57 pm

Well said. I cannot bear any longer being told that 'it's a matter of demand and supply'. These are people's homes, their shelters, their building of their families' lives, livelihoods and happiness. Progressive countries all over the world do not abandon tenants to the mercy of a 'free' market. Just not done.

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