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In a recent judgment delivered on 26th March 2026, the First Hall of the Civil Court addressed an increasingly common issue in property disputes: whether long-term occupation and alleged verbal arrangements are sufficient to establish a valid agricultural lease over privately owned land. The case concerned an agricultural land situated in Żabbar. The plaintiffs instituted […]

In Maltese property law, the promise of sale agreement, commonly known as the konvenju, has long been treated as a legal ticking clock. For decades, a rigid interpretation of Article 1357 of the Civil Code fostered what many practitioners came to regard as a procedural trap: if a vendor failed to file a judicial letter […]

In a previous contribution, we had explained that easments, or as we often refer to them, servitudes, are defined as a right established for the advantage of a tenement (dominant) over another tenement (servient) belonging to another person, for the purpose of making use of such other tenement or of restraining the owner from the […]

The Court of Appeal, in a judgement delivered on the 17th June 2025 (Case 65/20) confirmed the decision of the First Court whereby the owner of the airspace was found to have breached the rights of the owners of underlying apartments who had the right of use of the roof. The owners of the apartments […]

The substratum of Maltese contract law is the Theory of Autonomy of the Will which emphasises the freedom of one’s will when entering into a contract. Hence, ‘the consent of the contracting parties is an essential prerequisite for the formation of a contract.’ The law does not define ‘consent’ however Laurent opines that it is […]

In today’s overheated property market, it has become all too common for eager buyers to sign promises of sale — only to later get cold feet or encounter financing issues, then attempt to use legal technicalities to wriggle out of their commitments. Maltese courts have increasingly made it clear that the law’s protective mechanisms cannot […]

In the realm of property law, community of property is an evident reality within Malta. As stated in Article 489(1) of the Civil Code (Chapter 16 of the Laws of Malta), ‘community of property exists where the ownership of one and the same thing, or of one and the same right, is vested pro indiviso […]

During arbitration proceedings brought before the Malta Arbitration Centre, a claim was lodged by aggrieved condomini who collectively claimed that a decision taken during an annual general meeting, whereby a request to have CCTV cameras installed in the common parts of a block of apartments was rejected. The condomini collectively claimed that this was an […]

In a recent judgment, the Court of Appeal examined key legal issues that frequently arise in property development. The case of Laferla et vs. Mifsud focused on three primary matters: the legal restrictions on excavation near a party wall, the rights of neighbours to modify a shared wall, and the implications of distance requirements for windows […]

Notified PIFs (NOW including also self-managed PIFs) – what do they mean for the Maltese fund industry? Malta’s past success story as a fund domicile has traditionally been founded on the Professional Investor Fund (PIF) product.  This has gradually gained its popularity with fund managers around the globe, particularly small and medium sized managers, since […]