Letting a home to somebody who lives here.
This is a different law from the short-let rules, with a different regulator and sharper teeth. Two things can make your contract worth nothing: not registering it, and leaving one of seven things out of it. Both are easy to fix and neither is well known.
Register it, or you have no contract.
The Act puts it in one line: contracts of private residential leases which are not registered in accordance with the provisions of the Act shall be null and void. You have thirty days from the day the lease starts, you do it online with the Housing Authority, and it counts back to the day the lease began.
- Renewals count too
- Every renewal has to be registered, and the Act says that whether you renewed in writing or simply let it roll on. Each lease needs its own application, and one application may not cover two of them.
- Late costs more, and the Act does not say how much
- Article 4(2) makes a late registration subject to an additional fee and leaves the amount to the Housing Authority. We are not going to print a figure we have only read second hand.
- Your tenant can do it without you
- If you have not registered it, the tenant may register it themselves at your expense and keep back part of the rent until they have got the fee back. That is article 4(4), and most landlords have never heard of it.
- Missing it cannot help you
- A failure to register may not be used against your tenant, and you cannot rely on it as a defence if it comes to enforcement.
- They ask how many people will live there
- The Authority asks for the number, and can refuse a registration that goes over a limit set by regulation. Registering is not a statement that the place is fit to live in, and the Act says so in terms.
What has to be in the contract.
It has to be in writing, and article 6(1) lists what goes in it. Leave any one of these out and article 6(2) makes the whole agreement null and void, which is a harder consequence than a fine.
- 01The place being let.
- 02What it may be used for.
- 03How long it is let for.
- 04Whether it can be extended, and how.
- 05The rent, and how it is paid.
- 06Any deposit the tenant leaves.
- 07An inventory, signed by everybody, of the condition of the place and of any furniture and appliances you supply.
The inventory is the one people skip. It has to be signed by everybody, it has to cover the state of the place as well as anything you supplied, photographs count so long as they show the condition fully and clearly and each one carries a short description, and it is needed even when you let the place unfurnished.
How long, and how it ends.
At least a year
A long lease cannot be shorter than one year. Write a shorter one and article 8 turns it into a year anyway.
Three months' notice
A long lease ends when its term runs out only if you gave at least three months' notice by registered letter. Sending it in time, to the right address, is what you have to be able to show.
A short lease is looser
On a short residential lease the tenant has to stay a month, and after that can leave on a week's notice by registered letter. You may not charge them for going.
What we have not checked yet.
We read the Act. We have not yet read the Housing Authority's own pages, so the registration fee, the late fee, and whether they have published a model contract are all open. Deposits, rent increases during a lease, and any minimum standards the Minister has set are open too. When we have read them, this page will say so and say when.
Whether this Act covers a particular letting of yours turns on whether the person staying counts as a tourist, and that is a question for a lawyer rather than for us.
Questions landlords ask.
- Does a rental contract have to be registered in Malta?
- Yes. Article 4 of the Private Residential Leases Act (Cap. 604) requires every private residential lease to be registered, and says that a contract which is not registered is null and void. The landlord has thirty days from the day the lease starts, the registration is done online, and it counts back to the day the lease began.
- What happens if I register a lease late in Malta?
- Article 4(2) says a late registration is subject to an additional fee, and leaves the amount to the Housing Authority rather than setting it in the Act. Article 4(4) also lets the tenant register the lease themselves at your expense, and hold back part of the rent to recover what they paid.
- What must a Maltese rental contract contain?
- Article 6(1) requires it in writing with seven things: the tenement, the agreed use, the period, whether and how it may be extended, the rent and how it is paid, any deposit, and an inventory signed by all parties attesting the condition of the property and of any furniture and domestic appliances the landlord supplies. Article 6(2) makes the agreement null and void if any one of them is missing.
- Is an inventory needed if the property is unfurnished?
- Yes. Article 6(1)(g) closes with a proviso saying in terms that the inventory shall also be presented where the tenement is let unfurnished. The inventory may be presented as photographs, so long as they attest the condition fully, clearly and unequivocally, and the parties accompany the photographs with short descriptions.
- How much notice do I give a tenant at the end of a long lease?
- At least three months, by registered letter, under article 9(1). The lease then ends when its term expires. Proving that the letter was sent in time and to the right address is enough.
- Can a long residential lease be shorter than a year?
- No. Article 8 says a long private residential lease cannot have a duration of less than one year, and an agreement stipulating a shorter one is deemed to have been agreed for a year.
For landlords