Property & Conveyancing in Malta
Immovable property in Malta is transferred by virtue of a public deed, and it is the purchaser’s notary who safeguards the acquisition. The office is a double one: the notary is an impartial public officer, lending public faith to the act, and at the same time the person charged with establishing that what is being sold may lawfully be sold.
The Promise of Sale
Most transfers begin with the promise of sale, known in Malta as the konvenju. It binds vendor and purchaser to conclude the transfer on agreed terms, fixes the price, and records the conditions on which the sale depends — the grant of a bank facility, the issue of a permit, the resolution of a defect in title. The agreement is registered with the Commissioner for Revenue, provisional duty being paid at that stage.
The interval that follows is not idle time. It is the period in which the notary does the work that protects the purchaser, and its length is best settled with that work in mind rather than fixed arbitrarily.
Examination of Title and Searches
Title is traced through the successive acts by which the property has passed, and the searches extend to the Public Registry and the Land Registry as the case requires. We look to establish that the vendor holds what he purports to hold, and to bring to light the burdens that would otherwise pass unnoticed: hypothecs and privileges securing debts, servitudes and rights of way, conditions imposed on an earlier transfer, and the claims of heirs where the property has devolved on a succession.
Where the property is held on emphyteusis, or subject to a ground rent, the terms of the grant are examined and the position of the purchaser explained.
Duty, Reliefs and Financing
Duty on documents and transfers is payable by the purchaser, and the law affords a number of reliefs — among them those available to first-time buyers, to second-time buyers, and in respect of property situated within an Urban Conservation Area. Whether a relief is available turns on the circumstances of the purchaser and of the property alike. We advise on the position at the outset, so that the figure the purchaser must find is known before the promise of sale is signed and not after.
Where the acquisition is financed, the loan and the hypothec securing it are constituted in the same deed as the transfer, the lender’s requirements being attended to in the drafting so that purchase and security advance hand in hand.
The Final Deed and Registration
On the appointed day the parties attend before the notary, who reads and explains the deed, satisfies himself that its contents are understood, and receives the signatures. The balance of the price is paid, the duty settled, and the deed enrolled in the notarial archives. The transfer is thereafter registered, at which point it takes effect against third parties and the purchaser’s title is complete.
We act for purchasers and for vendors, for those acquiring a first home and for those disposing of property held in a family for generations, and for companies acquiring premises in the course of business.
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