This article first appeared on Malta Today

The Condominium Act which was introduced in 2001 obliged owners in blocks of more than three apartments to appoint a Condominium Administrator.

The purpose behind it made sense: whereas before the owners used to manage everything between themselves, it became more complicated as apartment blocks grew bigger. To describe it briefly, the role of the administrator is to regulate the use and cleaning of the common parts, ensure the collection of maintenance fees for the upkeep of the block, to keep proper audited accounts and to hold regular meetings where owners can put forward their concerns and decisions are taken through a vote.

As a result of this obligation to have an administrator, a number of companies suddenly mushroomed, some which were legitimate, others which were rather more dodgy (and I’m speaking from personal experience).

From what I have seen, there is not much in the Condominium Act to ensure that those who go in for this job are bona fide. They have to register with the Lands Authority but after that, if things start going south, the owners have to band together and take matters in their own hands to find yet another administrator who will hopefully not take them for a ride. All of which rather defeats the purpose of having someone professional who can manage the complexities of apartments which can number as many as 40 or 50, all under the umbrella of one block.

There are just too many loopholes and not enough protection for law-abiding owners. For example there is nothing in this law to force defaulting owners who refuse to pay their share of the maintenance fee, to pay up. You have to take them to court which ends up being more costly than the actually amount which is owed. If important works which require additional funds need to be carried out, a handful of people can hold the entire place to ransom and nothing is done, which means the value of the property deteriorates as the whole place starts looks shabbier and shabbier. If someone is renting out their property as an air b’n b’ with no adherence to keeping noise levels down, or taking the rubbish out on the right day – once again the condo administrators’ hands are tied.

Most exasperating of all, if the administrators do not fulfil their promise to maintain the block in excellent shape, leaving the owners high and dry with no where to turn, it becomes a very frustrating situation where one wonders whether this Condominium Act has really made things better – or whether it has simply created another way for those who are not trustworthy, to rip people off.

These loopholes need to be tightened and any further lacunae need to be seen to so that this Act can truly be working in the interest of property owners.

Landlords – the other side of the story

I have often written about the rights of tenants who are treated unfairly and are taken advantage of by unscrupulous landlords, and I am often met with the rebuttal – and how come you never mention nightmare tenants?

So here it is, the other side of the story. The story of landlords who furnish rental apartments as nicely as possible, only to have the furniture and appliances damaged and needing to be replaced, the place left as filthy as a pigsty, and worst of all – tenants who don’t pay the rent or utility bills. After all this grief, comes the clincher, because guess what? For all the laws which the government enacts, here is another one which has its pitfalls.

By law, every rental contract for a long lease has to be registered with the Housing Authority. All well and good, and again those who are law-abiding went through the paces and did everything by the book, ticking all the boxes, completing the information requested, uploading the contract and the inventory and so on. But then guess what happens if you are left in the lurch and a tenant doesn’t pay? Caramba che sorpresa! That’s right – a big fat nothing.

You cannot change the locks, you cannot remove anyone’s belongings, you cannot do anything which might render a person homeless because it will be you who will be in breach of the law. The Police won’t get involved (“it’s a civil matter”) and your only recourse is, you guessed it, the courts. So in these cases where the tenant is at fault, there is little to protect a landlord who has sustained a financial loss and cannot get their property back.

There needs to be an option in place on the Housing Authority rental registration portal, to be used by a landlord when a tenant has not paid their rent or utilities. Obviously there has to be concrete proof – but that should not be a problem if everything is being done according to law, with a bank transaction, receipts and other paper trails. (If you are trying to evade tax by demanding rent in cash and never giving a receipt then I’m afraid you won’t have much of a leg to stand on and in this case you probably haven’t registered the lease either). Once failure to pay is proven, however, it would automatically enable a Marshall to come to the residence with the owner and legally evict the tenant, while allowing the locks to be changed.

This would prevent the kind of scenes we have been witness to, of people unlawfully taking matters into their own hands, turning off the power to the residence to force tenants out, or even resorting to violence.

As things stand, however, for those who are doing everything correctly, there is nothing in place to protect them, which is why frustration boils over and some landlords have given up on being involved in the rental property market altogether because the stress of dealing with tenants from hell becomes too much.

But for those with a strong constitution, and with so many foreign workers looking to rent, the rental sector has become a huge business. In fact there are those who are now quitting their jobs and simply relying on what is described as ‘passive income’ from their properties. It is precisely because it has become an industry in itself that more safeguards are needed. We do not have to come up with any novel ideas from scratch but simply adapt the practices of other countries, where tenant and landlord both know their rights, the terms and conditions are fair to both and renting a property is a straightforward business transaction which does not have to be embroiled in drama or threats.