In January 2011 we rented an apartment for 1 year and had no problems in that time with the landlord. He was always very nice and friendly, he sorted any problems out for us (although slowly). We were due to end the lease on 26th January 2012.
In October he asked that we either sign for a new year or let him know so he could begin viewings (bit early I think!) and when we told him we'd be moving he asked we sign a new agreement that we would move out in December.
We did this to help him out as we assumed he had new tenants lined up and he'd always been nice. It meant we had 2 pay cheques less savings but we managed anyway.
The day we moved out everything changed. We never signed an inventory when we moved in, but when we moved out he made us go through one with a large amount of items that were not there when we moved in (24 piece pot/pan set for example!) and was upset when we refused to pay for these non existant items but eventually agreed it was his own fault for not having us do one when we moved in.
He then decided to charge us €250 for some paintwork which we had damaged. We damaged this months ago, told him about it and offered to sort it ourselves but he told us he'd sort it and we wouldn't have to pay. Yet the day we moved out, he changed his mind. (via email- none of these demands were made to our face!)
When we reluctantly agreed to pay this, he pulled out the cleaning card. There was no part in our contract/lease with him to say we'd have to pay for hte cleaning whe we moved out. I know a lot of leases do include this, which is fine, but his didn't. He proceeded to tell us the flat had not been cleaned in our whole year living there and added an extra €100 onto our bill with him. He even sent me emails stating that 'as a woman you should have realised it was not clean' and that he never mentioned the dirt to me face to face so as not to cause offense.
After many unpleasant emails we agreed to pay the 250 + 100 (on top of some outstanding bills for electricity) for an easy life. We couldn't be bothered with the hassle and downright harassment we were getting from him. He told us we could pay over a few months, and there was no urgent rush.
Our last installment was due to be paid this month and he hadn't contacted us yet so we were just waiting for his email. He messaged my boyfriend yesterday but he didn't check his emails until today. because my boyfriend didn't reply immediately we got this email;
***
I am assuming that you had your day off and therefore no access to the emails and
that's why you did not come back to me.
Nevertheless I think I have been patient enough with you and your friend and therefore
unless I receive the full and final settlement (Eur 370) by Friday 9th March I will be
taking the necessary steps to recover my money (incl. but not limited to freezing of bank accounts,
impediment of departure from the country etc etc).
**
Threatening to freeze our bank accounts because we didnt reply for one day, regarding money that we dont legally owe him? For things we have not even seen receipts for? Is this even possible?
How does he expect us to pay him if he has our bank account frozen?
As for preventing us from leaving the country- we live here, have a new (much nicer) flat here, jobs- why would we leave over 370 (which in all honesty is not a big deal to us!). We will obviously pay the money we owe for bills but the last installment is just for the repainting and cleaning.
I'm basically just warning you that even landlords who seem really nice, are probably psychopaths, and wondering if he has authority to freeze our bank accounts if we weren't to pay (even though we will). Our first landlady was useless the whole time we lived there and kept our deposit when we moved out for incredibly made up reasons, but we thought we'd got lucky with this one.
If anyone would like this landlords name, just message me!
Landlord turned seriously nasty
Hi
Indeed they can become crazy.. in belgium is the same.. 
You could share his name so future ppl be prepared for this one!
Best of luck with that issue..
Regards,
Aires.
I do want to post the name publicly but I'm worried about legal implications!
But the apartment was in Sliema, hes a short, fat, cross eyed man and he works in a bank... if a prospective landlord matches this description mail me first 
Hi,
that's about the most detail I would give publicly on this issue -)))
But send me the information by private message ! And I wish you more luck with future landlords.
Cheers
Ricky
so he works in a bank and he threatens to freeze your bank accounts? Well that sounds...suspicious? Are your bank accounts with the same bank? Maybe you should seek the advice of a lawyer..what he is doing seems to be illegal, asking you to pay for charges you are not meant to? An oral agreement is still an agreement like any other contract, although much more difficult to prove.
this is utterly disgraceful...but typical of malti attitude towards THE "foreigner" as thats we are.....and a licence to print money and defraud you out if anything they can get - stick to your guns and only pay what you think is fair and reasonable.....and i mean that most sincerely.....if he takes you to court no matter by what means It will take years...and I do mean YEARS....
I DO SYMPATHISE WITH YOU.....AND WISH YOU THE VERY BEST OF LUCK
NB Please dont give in to these shysters....black masks and white horses spring to mind.....
I'd call his bluff.
If you didnt sign an inventory when you moved in how can he prove what was there and what wasn't?
a great advert maltese friendliness.....NOT...
a rip off capital of europe........
I would still advise to be cautious on these issues.
As a foreigner you will always loose a court case against a Maltese ! The Maltese will prove what they want with or without signed papers !
We had the case of a blog regular being tail-ended and loosing against the speedster crashing into the back of the car . You can only win at court if you have Maltese siding with you - our experience !We won a case with Maltese neighbours against noise .... wouldn't have won on our own !!!!
Cheers
Ricky
He works in a bank but not the one I hold my account with, so I'm not sure what authority he has to freeze my account. Because surely people could just go around freezing peoples accounts willy nilly!
He provided a receipt for the 250 paint job, and although it was clearly over priced as I did damage the paint work I felt it easier that we just pay this.
But hes still wanting 100euro now for the cleaning. It was not in our contract that we must pay cleaning when we moved out, it has taken him a month to provide a receipt, and the receipt he has provided is just on lined receipt paper that you can buy in Tal Lira!
There is no breakdown of the cost, my friend pays 30 for cleaning, so for a 100 EUR receipt I'd expect a breakdown of WHY it cost that much. I don't see why we should pay if HE got ripped off!
There is no company name, logo, header or number for me to call to verify the validity.
Pretty certain we have no obligation to pay for this scrap of paper. I do understand that if he chooses to take us to court we'll most likely lose, but I wonder how likely he is to go down this route for 98 euro?
It's just a hard decision because I know if we give in and pay this, that he'll then fabricate a new reason every week why we must pay more, but if we dont, and he DOES go via the courts we're likely to lose (however unjust!) just because we're not Maltese and then we'll end up having to pay his court fees too.
Nightmare
Hi,
surely the tax office will be interested in knowing who got the payment and whether the person declares his income correctly.
This could be a point with the rental payments too. I presume that you have receipts for the payments you made in cash.
He is unlikely to take you to court because the magistrate will ask the same questions I just asked and ask to see the rental contract.
Also if he is getting a residential mortgage but using the property commercially by renting out the bank will be interested too !
Could be some leverage there for you to negotiate.
And it is not that easy to freeze an account just because he works for a bank. That is abuse of his position and threatening , all in one!
Hope you can sort things out without much more hassle.
Cheers
Ricky
I agree wholeheartedly with ricky - - well spotted Ricky - id try the leverage bit with him as most malti dont declare their income either to banks or the revenue dept in case they get hit with tax........and what about VAT as an ongoing commercial concern in terms of bills - the reason i say this is because i know thru personal experience the VAT dept are very interested in none vat receipts.......plus as ricky said am sure his bank would be most interested in his usage of the property should it turn out to be mortgaged and of course not to mention the insurance aspects tied to renting out your own mortgaged property....bigger risk with strangers in your mortgaged property and i wiull bet he aint told anyone........good luck
talk to the estate agent you rented through - I did that for someone having landlord problems, and the problems quickly disappeared
another good tip from GinG
another good tip from GinG - i did this once to help a friend out a few years ago and the threats soon disappeared. always have your contract handy - the one you both signed and with luck the estate agent may have signed too.
Remember, unlike in the UK where the agent is paid by the landlord, in Malta their fees are split between the landlord and the tenant, and a good agent will act as an intermediary.
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