Cap. 158 чл. 12BContinuation of a lease of a dwelling-house.

(1) When a person is in occupation of a dwelling-house on the basis of a title of lease, which may have also been established on the basis of a preceding title of emphytheusis or sub-emphyteusis, which st commenced before 1 June 1995 through the application of the provisions of this Ordinance, the following conditions shall, provided they are inconsistent with the provisions of the said articles of this st Ordinance, apply in respect of such lease from 1 June 2021 notwithstanding the provisions of the said articles of this Ordinance or of any other law.

(2) The lessor shall be entitled to file an application before the Board requesting that the rent be reviewed to an amount not exceeding two percent (2%) per annum of the free and open market value of the dwelling-house on 1st January of the year in which the application is filed and in order to establish new conditions regarding the lease.

(3) (a) When the request is made by the lessor in accordance with sub-article (2) and the leased tenement is a dwelling-house, the Housing Authority shall be notified with the application and shall have the right to participate fully as intervenor in the proceedings;

(b) the tenant shall in any case be entitled to the benefit of legal aid provided by the Housing Authority in proceedings filed in terms of this article:

Provided that this shall not prejudice the rights of the lessor who shall be entitled to the benefit of legal aid provided by the Legal Aid Agency in proceedings filed in terms of this article if he is not in full-time gainful employment;

(c) at the initial stages of the proceedings the Board shall conduct a means test of the tenant, which shall be based on the means test provided for in the Continuation of Tenancies (Means Testing Criteria) Regulations issued under article 1622A of the Civil Code and any regulations that may from time to time replace them. The means test shall be based on the income of the tenant between the 1st January and the 31st December of the year preceding the year in which the proceedings are commenced and the capital of the tenant on the 31st December of the said year. The means test shall be conducted with particular reference, to regulations 4 to inter alia, 8 of the Continuation of Tenancies (Means Testing Criteria)

Regulations which shall apply mutatis mutandis:

Provided that when the lessor has the suspicion that the tenant may have transferred his property, both movable or immovable, with the intention of hiding these assets, he shall have the right to request that the means test on the capital assets st shall go back to the 1 January 2021 and when it is established that the tenant has disposed of these assets for malicious purposes, the Board shall nonetheless take them into consideration in its means test.

(4) Where the tenant does not meet the income and capital criteria of the means test the Board shall, after hearing any evidence and submissions produced by the parties, give judgement allowing the tenant a period of two (2) years to vacate the dwelling-house. The compensation for occupation of the dwelling-house payable to the lessor during the said period shall be determined by the Board as the case may be.

(5) Where the tenant meets the income and capital criteria of the means test the Board shall proceed according to the following sub-articles.

(6) The Board, in any case, after summarily hearing the parties and examining any evidence which it considers relevant, may also order that an increased amount of rent be paid during the hearing of a pending application filed in terms of sub-article (1).

(7) When the rent amount is established in accordance with sub-article (2), that rent may increase according to the regulations published by the Minister responsible for housing from time to time:

Provided that the demand for this increase shall be without prejudice to the lessor’s right to request the revision of the rent in accordance with sub-article (2), after a period of six (6) years from when the new rent would have been fixed in accordance with the same sub-article (2), unless an agreement is reached between the parties.

(8) The lessor may, whenever it transpires that the economic circumstances of the tenant have changed, file a new application before the Board wherein he requests that a new means test of the tenant is conducted according to paragraph (c) of sub-article (3) and if the tenant does not satisfy the income and capital assets criteria of the means test, the Board shall decide the case in terms of sub-article (4).

(9) The provisions of this article shall also apply to cases wherein a community of property on the dwelling-house exists and the tenant is a co-owner of the same dwelling-house. When this is the case the Board shall consider the tenant’s share in the leased dwelling-house and subtract any part of the new rental amount payable by him to the other co-owners proportionally.

(10) The provisions of this article shall also apply in every case when the lessor has commenced proceedings with the aim of requesting an increase in the rent under this law, as was applicable before the 1st June 2021.