Watch: Gżira Landlord Kicks In Door After Tenants Refuse To Leave
The heated moment a door is kicked in as a tenant hides behind it reveals the aggression renters in Malta face after communication with their landlord breaks down.
The incident, which was made public by EU Nationals Advisory, a voluntary group supporting individuals facing issues while living and working in Malta, ended with the police being called to the site. It occurred following a back and forth between the landlords and two female tenants where an agreement could not be met.
“The women have a contract till October 2022, but an issue arose after they refused to pay for a washing machine technician. The landlord told them to leave, leading to the tenants opening a dispute with the Housing Authority,” Patricia Graham, from EU Advisory Nationals, told Lovin Malta.
However, Graham explained that the Housing Authority told the tenants they couldn’t open a dispute because the lease hadn’t been registered with them, leading to the tenants registering the lease.
The apartment, featuring three rooms, was being let out to three individuals, each paying €366 each a month for a total of €1,100.
However, when the landlord asked them to leave, one of the three tenants left – leading to the landlord to tell the tenants that if they wanted to remain, they needed to pay the full amount between them.
“They started looking for another apartment, and they found one, but they can’t enter it before 6th July,” Graham said.
“The tenants wanted to pay only their portion of the rent until 6th July, but the landlord came back to them saying the price had actually gone up to €1,300 now and they needed to pay the full amount.”
“When the tenants said no, the landlord apparently told them: ‘leave now or I call the boys’.”
In the footage, given by the tenants to EU Nationals Advisory, Graham says a man who the landlord called in begins “kicking down the tenant’s locked bedroom door and telling her she would pay for the damage incurred, with no deposit return.”
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“Open that door or we’re going to break it,” a woman can be heard shouting.
“Ersaq,” says a man, before kicking the door. The sound of something breaking can be heard.
“You pay for that,” the man says.
“Of course they are going to pay for everything,” says a woman.
Police were called to the site afterwards, but Graham was left unimpressed by what she saw.
“The tenants were left on the sidewalk, and one officer asked them why they had not just paid for the washing machine. When the tenants said there was no evidence they had damaged the washing machine, he told them: ‘it’s a washing machine, not a murder’.”
Graham has made a name for herself representing tenants – especially foreign ones – who find themselves in tenuous situations with their Maltese landlords. Graham accompanied the tenants to file a police report over the situation, but remains concerned that little to nothing will be done to help the tenants in question.
“Almost ten years to the day, I was doing this very same thing with another violent landlord. Have we truly not moved forward?”
Have you ever had a negative experience with a landlord in Malta?
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