A judge today decided to keep works at a Birkirkara construction site halted until those responsible were able to provide the neighbouring family with adequate alternative housing to guarantee their safety.

“The court won’t take responsibility for these two young kids when we have reports warning of a collapse,” Judge Joanne Vella Cuschieri said, giving the owners until Tuesday to reach a settlement with the Montebello family who fear their Fleur-de-Lys house will collapse due to excavation next door.

Their story made headlines two weeks ago when they publicly urged the authorities to intervene after receiving several reports warning of a collapse.

It was only thanks to a court warrant of prohibitory injunction that Ramona and Matthew Montebello were able to get the demolition works to stop.

“Did you offer to put them up in alternative accommodation during the construction phase?” the judge asked the site owner and architect David Psaila.

“We offered them €600 per month,” their lawyer Edward Debono said, having earlier described them as making a “mountain out of a molehill”. 

The site owners had also offered the Montebellos a two-bedroom apartment in Attard which admittedly had been kept in a disastrous state by the last tenants.

The judge asked the couple how many bedrooms they had at home, to which they answered three. They have two children.

Vella Cuschieri said the family should not have to be made to a two-bedroom apartment if they have a three-bedroom house.

She also said that €600 was not enough to find adequate accommodation.

She asked for the owners to come up with a better offer and for the parties to come to an out-of-court settlement by Tuesday before she takes a decision on whether the couple’s request for an injunction should be accepted.

At one point the judge said that, one way or another, this development will have to go through, so it was in the interests of both parties to reach an agreement.

She warned, however, that the court will not be taking responsibility for the lives of children when she had reports in hand warning of a possible collapse due to these works next door.

The court insisted that the site should remain closed until Tuesday and said that works would not even be allowed on other parts of the site that were not adjacent to the Montebello property.

The couple was represented by Tanya Sciberras and Darren Carabott.

What do you think of the judge’s decision?