Cap. 10 Art. 97Rules to be observed in the construction of houses.

(1) In the construction of any house or part of a house, the owner as well as the mason and the architect employed thereon, shall, unless otherwise provided by any regulations made under article 102, observe the rules contained in the following paragraphs:

(a) (i) in every wall, or where the wall has the cavity prescribed in paragraph (b), in the internal and in the external face of such wall, there shall be a layer of asphalt, sheets of lead, vitrified bricks, or any other substance impervious to dampness, approved by the General Services Board or prescribed in the said regulations;

(ii) the upper surface of such layer shall be at least ten centimetres above the level of the street, if the wall be adjacent to a street, or of the courtyard, if it be adjacent to a courtyard or at the level of the floor under the pavement, if any, of the room on the ground-floor, in the case of an internal wall;

(iii) any wall between two rooms, on the ground floor, the floors of which are not on the same level, shall, moreover, have a layer of any of the said substances, at the level of the floor of the lower room; and such wall shall, from the said layer to the upper surface of the floor of the room situate at the higher level or of the floor of the ventilated underground place, if any, under such room, on the side of it towards the one or the other room, as the sanitary authority shall, according to circum-stances, direct, be covered with asphalt or other substance approved by the General Services Board or prescribed in the said regulations;

(b) (i) every wall of any room, exposed to the rain, shall be of such thickness as the Minister responsible for public works may from time to time establish by order under this paragraph and, towards the middle of its thickness, there shall be left throughout its extent from the level of the room at ground floor or, if there is a cellar, from the floor of such cellar, up to the last course of the said wall a cavity of eight centimetres crossed only for solidity of the wall, and closed on the last course with a layer of asphalt, sheets of lead, vitrified bricks or any other substance impervious to dampness approved by the General Services Board, or with stone covered with such substance;

(ii) in the external face of such wall, there shall be such holes as the sanitary authority shall deem necessary for the passage of air into the said cavity;

(iii) as regards one of the faces of the said wall, the bonds, if they are not of iron, or other substance impervious to dampness approved by the General Services Board, shall be introduced into grooves in the stones of such face; and the surface of the grooves, or of such parts of the bonds as are introduced into them, shall be covered with asphalt or other impervious substance approved by the General Services Board;

(iv) the said cavity, however, shall not be necessary, where, towards the middle of the thickness of the wall, there is introduced or applied throughout the extent of such wall, hydraulic cement-concrete or other impervious substance approved by the General Services Board, save, as regards the bonds, the observance of the last preceding provision; and, in any such case, the thickness of the wall may be reduced to sixty centimetres;

(v) stone used in the building of any wall shall not exceed those dimensions as the said Minister may from time to time establish by order under this paragraph;

(vi) the said Minister may grant exemption from compliance with or permit departures from any provision of any order made by him under this paragraph, either with respect to any building or to any class or group of buildings, under such conditions as he may deem fit to impose;

(c) (i) the surface of the floor of any room on the ground-floor, not including the pavement, shall be at least fifteen centimetres higher than the level of the courtyard and of the level of the nearest street;

(ii) in any inclined street, such height shall be measured from the central line of the frontage, and if any portion thereof be below the prescribed height, such portion shall be separated from the street, as provided in article 108(2)(d);

(iii) the floor itself, if it has no ventilated underground place of a height of at least sixty centimetres, shall be formed or covered with a layer of asphalt, hydraulic cement-concrete, or other substance impervious to dampness approved by the General Services Board, the upper surface of which shall be in continuation of the impervious layer of the walls of the room; and if the room has any such underground place, there shall be, in the arches or pillars supporting the pavement of the room, immediately under such pavement, a layer of asphalt, sheets of lead, vitrified bricks, or other substance impervious to dampness approved by the General Services Board;

(d) Repealed by Legal Notice 99 of 2026;

(e) Repealed by Legal Notice 99 of 2026;

(f) (i) (Repealed by Legal Notice 376 of 2012);

(ii) the roof of any house shall be paved with such materials and drained in such a manner as to prevent the stagnation of water on such roof or the percolation of water into any part of the house;

(g) (i) every house shall be provided with a privy and such privy shall be communicated with the public sewer: Provided that the Superintendent of Public Health may exempt any owner from communicating the privy with the public sewer under the condition that the owner provides, in respect of that house,

(a) a cesspool, or

(b) a septic tank, or

(c) a sewage treatment and disposal plant, at the option of, and under such conditions as may be imposed by, the said Superintendent;

(ii) where the privy is at a lower level than the public sewer, the owner of the house shall provide means of pumping or lifting the material towards the public sewer;

(iii) the privy, cesspool, septic tank or sewage treatment and disposal plant, as well as their conduit, shall be constructed in such manner, with such materials, in such parts of the house or so distant from the house, and with such traps or other means to prevent any exhalations or infiltrations as the superintendent may, in any case, direct;

(iv) in the case of a shop, this paragraph shall not apply if the Superintendent of Public Health is satisfied that it is impracticable to provide it with a privy. For the purposes of this paragraph, of sub-article (2) and of article 102(2) -"house" includes any premises used, or intended to be used, either wholly or partially for habitation purposes, or for purposes of animal husbandry, any hotel or catering establishment as defined in the Malta Travel and Tourism

Services Act, and any shop other than a stall or a kiosk; "owner" shall not include a person holding the house under temporary emphyteusis for a period of not more than seventeen years;

(h) (i) every sink, wash-basin, bath or other similar appliance shall be of the proper pattern and material and shall not communicate directly with the drains but shall be provided with a waste pipe made to discharge on a gully-trap situated in the open air and connected with regular drains;

(ii) it shall be lawful for the Superintendent of Public Health to allow the waste pipe of any sink, washbasin, bath or other similar appliance to discharge in any other manner which he may consider suitable in any particular case;

(i) the pipes or conduits for communication with the public sewer, with a cesspool, with a septic tank or with a sewage treatment and disposal plant shall be formed of glazed stoneware or other impervious substance approved by the General Services Board; such pipes or conduits shall be at such a distance from the cistern as the sanitary authority may deem necessary for the prevention of exhalations or infiltrations; and they shall, as far as practicable, be laid in such a manner as to allow of their being, without much difficulty, opened by a mason;

(j) the privies shall have ventilators made in such a manner as, in the opinion of the sanitary authority, will prevent exhalations;

(k) every sink, wash-basin, bath or other similar appliance mentioned in paragraph (h), shall also have ventilators as provided in the last preceding paragraph, if the sanitary authority shall deem such ventilators to be necessary for preventing exhalations; (l) Repealed by Legal Notice 99 of 2026;

(m) saving the provisions of paragraph (g), the cesspool of any house or building shall be made or re-made, placed and ventilated in accordance with the directions which shall, in each case, be given by the Superintendent of Public Health, or be generally established by regulations made under article 102;

(n) (i) Repealed by Legal Notice 99 of 2026; (ii) Repealed by Legal Notice 99 of 2026; (iii) Repealed by Legal Notice 99 of 2026; (iv) Repealed by Legal Notice 99 of 2026;

(v) it shall be lawful for the competent authority to dispense with the formation of a yard as provided in the foregoing rules, where the site on which the building is to be erected, be of a width so small as not to allow the formation of such yard, and where each of the rooms and the stairs of the building be directly lighted at least through a window opening on the public street or any other open space;

(vi) if, owing to the configuration of the site on which the house is to be constructed, the yard cannot be of the prescribed length or width, the Superintendent of Public Health may permit a smaller length or width, provided, in his opinion, such smaller length or width, having regard to the particular circumstances of the place, is sufficient to secure such light and ventilation as are required for the wholesome condition of the house;

(vii) the yard or yards of any house shall be paved and drained in the manner prescribed in the regulations made under article 102;

(viii) (Repealed by Legal Notice 376 of 2012);

(o) (i) thirty days at least before the commencement of the building or re-building of any house, or part of a house, or, in the case of the communication of a privy with the public sewer, before such communication is covered up, the architect or mason, or the owner, shall give notice thereof to the Superintendent of Public Health, together with a drawing of the work proposed to be carried out;

(ii) where, in the opinion of the Superintendent of Public Health, the work proposed to be carried out is such as to require technical direction in order to prevent, during or after the execution of the work, injury to property or danger to the men employed on the work or to passers-by or other persons, it shall be lawful for the said Superintendent of Public Health to require a written declaration by an architect assuming the direction and responsibility of the work, saving in all cases any civil or criminal liability of any other person, according to law;

(iii) the Superintendent of Public Health shall, upon the demand of the architect, mason, or owner, within thirty days, from the delivery of the drawing, or forty days, if the matter has to be considered by the General Services Board, communicate to him the approval or disapproval thereof by the sanitary authority; (iv) Repealed by Legal Notice 99 of 2026;

(v) such approval shall be deemed to be null and void if any information or specification contained in the said notice or in the drawing accompanying it is proved to be inaccurate or misleading;

(vi) it shall be lawful for any official of the Department of Health, in the course or after the completion of the work, to inspect the place in order to ascertain whether the work, both as regards the materials used and the mode of its execution, conforms to the provisions of the law or regulations;

(p) on the application of the architect in charge of the building or re-building of a house for an exemption in respect of such house from the provisions of paragraph (l) or of paragraph (n)(i), the Superintendent of Public Health may -

(i) in any case not specified in paragraph (n)(v) and (vi); and

(ii) if the General Services Board consider that such an exemption may be granted without detriment to the wholesome condition of the house or of other houses in its vicinity, exempt such house from any or all of those provisions, subject to such conditions as he thinks fit, and no appeal shall lie from a decision of the Superintendent of Public Health under this paragraph;

(q) (i) this paragraph applies to any house the height of which, measured from the lowest damp proof course to the highest point of the house, exceeds twenty-four metres;

(ii) before the commencement of the building or re-building of any house to which this paragraph applies, the architect in charge shall submit to the Director of Public Works plans and specifications together with such other particulars relating to the building or re-building of the house as may be required by the Director of Public Works, who shall advise the Superintendent of Public Health in writing whether he is satisfied that the house when built or re-built, as the case may be, in accordance with such plans, specifications and particulars will be stable and safe;

(iii) the advice of the Director of Public Works given under the last preceding sub-paragraph shall not affect the liability of the architect or of any other person in respect of the stability or safety of the house;

(iv) the provisions of this paragraph shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, any of the provisions of this Part applicable to houses, and in particular but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the provisions of paragraph (o) shall apply to any house to which this paragraph applies as if the reference to the specification and drawing contained in sub-paragraph (v) thereof included a reference to the plans, specifications and any particulars referred to in sub-paragraph (ii), and as if the reference to any official of the Department of Health contained in sub-paragraph

(vi) thereof included a reference to any official of the Public Works Department: Provided that the times mentioned in paragraph (o)(i) and (iii) shall not run in any case to which this paragraph applies.

(2) When any house is to be connected with the public sewer in accordance with the provisions of sub-article (1)(g), the Director of Public Works may, if he deems it fit and practicable, lay the connection between the public sewer and the intercepting chamber relative to such house, and the owner of such house shall, within thirty days of an intimation by the said Director, pay to the latter such connection fee as the Minister responsible for public works may establish by regulations made under this sub-article, and, in default of payment within the said term of thirty days, interest shall be due by the said owner at the rate of six per cent as per annum from the date of intimation.

(3) Where, pursuant to regulations made under article 102(2), the Director of Public Works or any other person has carried out any works for or in connection with the provisions of sub-article (1)(g) and such works are carried out for or in the interest of other persons liable to carry out the same works in accordance with the said paragraph (g), the said Director or other person who will have carried out the above works shall have a privileged claim in his favour on the property in respect of which the works will have been carried out for the amount due to him in accordance with any regulations made as aforesaid, provided such claim is registered in the Public Registry within two months from the completion of the works, and such privileged claim shall have priority over all other claims, whether privileged or hypothecary, on such property, notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary.