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.