Source: Malta Star, MaltaMedia News
The ruling party in the tiny European island nation of Malta, located on an archipelago south of Sicily, is considering changes to the country's rent laws that have a gay rights group there calling foul.

The changes proposed in a white paper released by the ruling Nationalist Party deal with leases entered before rent/lease controls were removed in June, 1995.

If laws proposed in the white paper were adopted, rules would be changed for leases entered into before 1995 when housing laws gave strong protection and advantages to tenants and limited rent/lease increases.

According to a property-management website, the old rent-control rules are still in force for about a quarter of the housing stock in Malta. Current law is considered landlord-friendly for leases entered into after 1995.

The proposed new rules would ease some restrictions on rent increases for the older leases, but would also specify who can inherit or take over the lease for a rent-controlled unit.

The Malta Gay Rights Movement (MGRM) charges that the government's proposed changes discriminate against gay and lesbian couples.

Under the proposal, the extension of rights to existing rents is limited to a husband or a wife who are married and not separated.

Gabi Calleja, coordinator of the MGRM told the Maltese-language Sunday paper Kullhadd that the white paper clearly discriminates against same-sex couples who live together, Malta Star reports.

"Obviously the white paper discriminates against same-sex couples, even if these would have been in a relationship for years. It ignores the human realities which concern sexual minorities. [T]he consequence [of this is] that if a partner dies, at the same moment of grief and sorrow for having lost your loved one, a gay person can end up homeless or looking for an alternative home," Calleja said.

The opposition Malta Labor Party objects to a number of aspects of the proposed new rules, including the issues raised by MGRM.

In its response to the government white paper, Labor notes that the recommendations "cut corners without taking into consideration specific circumstances of the new social reality which society is experiencing."

"This puts aside new social realities such as cohabitation, same-sex couples, and members of the same families (brother and sisters) who live together," said the Labor Party in its analysis.

Labor also says that 46 per cent of tenants whose lease started before 1995 will see an increase in their rents. The majority of these tenants are elderly people. Labor argues that it is unjust that after years of contribution they are faced with such a drastic change in their standard of living.

MGRM's Calleja said the ruling Nationalist Party's failure to recognize gay and lesbian couples is consistent with the party's lack of response to other initiatives from the rights group. "MGRM has long been lobbying to legal recognition of same-sex couples," Calleja said. "Such a law would be protecting gay and lesbian couples in such situations."

Calleja welcomed Labor's support, but argued that its critique of the rental-law white paper did not go far enough.

"MGRM welcomes Labour’s position recommending that same sex couples should be given the right to inherit rented property," Calleja said. "They should also be considered as married couples even where inheritance of property (which is owned, not rented) is concerned."

Source: Gay community welcomes Labour's rent reform stand | Malta Star
MLP reacts to white paper on rent reform | MaltaMedia News

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