Perfectly put
This letter should set Joseph Muscat straight on the true meaning of liberal values. In his haste to chat on about ‘social justice’ in the matter of rent laws – and there have been ministers on the government benches who have made the same mistake – he forgets that social justice hasn’t been privatised. It’s not up to the private property owner to provide subsidised homes to people who can afford to pay rent but will not do so (or even, for that matter, to people who can’t afford to pay any rent at all).
The Times, Wednesday, 11 February
Landlords owe nothing to tenants
Lesley Grech, Mosta
Much has been written about a balance of social justice between the landlord and the tenant but I submit that it all amounts to a completely wrong approach to the meaning of justice. It should be beyond argument that justice, as far as the landlord is concerned, means his receiving a just return (market value) on his property. As far as the tenant is concerned, the application of the word justice surely means his paying a fair price for the use of the property.The landlord owes nothing to the tenant. If the landlord has been deprived of justice for 75 years, the state has been the culprit and should bear the brunt of rectifying the injustice. There exists no balance between landlord and tenant to be adjusted.
In any other country tenants expect to pay up to one third of their income in rent. In the ideal world justice demands that rent restrictions should be removed entirely.
Admittedly, in this imperfect world this cannot be done immediately but until this is done the landlord is supporting the state and the tenant is not paying what is justly due. But let us not go on talking of a balance which suggests that anything on the scales has been weighted in favour of the landlord.
Many years ago a family in a village in Malta, out of its social conscience, rented spacious premises in prime sites to the two village band clubs and further rented a home to the bandmaster of one. Today, two generations later, the two band clubs are paying under €320 a year each, the bandmaster’s family paying €95 a year. The landlord’s family’s social conscience has been worn rather thin and sees no balance of any kind, only imbalance.
Now look at this utterly stupid comment that appears beneath the above report, and which illustrates perfectly how, in a country where everyone seems to think they are owed a living and shouldn’t have to pay for something on the grounds that they need it as opposed to want it, people don’t understand that it’s the market that sets the price. Apparently, it’s OK for tenants to ‘rob’ landlords.
G.Mangion (2 hours, 50 minutes ago)
The landlord owes nothing to the tenant. NO ???Many Tenants are bieng Robbed, I.E for a furnished supposed Flat They get rent from even the most Fil – Bzonn Families some 150 L.M a Month !!! and more too.
Is that Fair ?
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If you have taught your people for all these years that it’s right and proper to pay Lm10, Lm15 or Lm25 per month, I’m sure they are going to cause a fuss when they are brought back to reality. There is, in these cases, only one proper and dignified response: tough titties!
This one had me in stiches. Well done Japan.
http://www.theonion.com/content/index/4507
Well said Pat.
G.Mangion, it is totally fair, considering fil-bzonn families in the greatest democracy of the world sleep in boxes.
Although I have to admit that some rents are ridiculous, are you implying that sleeping in boxes is where we want to end up in Malta?
Gerald
“Although I have to admit that some rents are ridiculous, are you implying that sleeping in boxes is where we want to end up in Malta?”
If someone wants to sleep without paying any rent (or hardly any), a large box might be a cosy option actually.
Gerald, I hear that a cardboard manufacturer is on a four-day week. Maybe if we landlords throw out our ‘pennies’ tenants, this company would up production to keep up with the sudden demand for boxes and it could go back to normal. Now isn’t that just ingenious? It would suit your socialist mindset no end, wouldn’t it? Killing two birds with one stone, a la Mintoff.
My siblings and I inherited an apartment from our parents. The apartment was rented out in the era of controlled rents at less than Lm100 p.a. (about 40 years ago). As I do not yet own any property in Malta, I had speculated on acquiring this apartment in the hope of relocating back to my roots.
En prison. Rien ne va plus.
@Leo Said
Do you seriously want to give up ‘Die deutsche Gemütlichkeit’?
@Atoine – “If someone wants to sleep without paying any rent (or hardly any), a large box might be a cosy option actually.”
I see. So this is why you’ve come to need that box cutter.
@ Andrea
One must first define “Gemütlichkeit” and then consider the circumstances, which may affect it.
I would like to say that it is highly unfair that (like me) one has a private property which cannot be used (by me) as it has been rented to someone at a ridiculous and miserable amount of Lm18 per annum. I think I spend more than that on bubblegum. Why should an owner suffer and buy another property to reside in if he owns something already. This is entirely unfair..who is the needy one here? I’m sorry, but these are leeches.