Changes in the rights and obligations of co-owners by the introduction of Article 495A in the Civil Code of Malta

Abstract

The aim of this study is to show the change that the co-owners experienced in their rights and obligations. It is divided into three chapters and each of them shows the change that has taken place due to the promulgation of article 495A of the Civil Code. This article enables the majority of co-owners to enforce the sale of a property held in common. The study starts off by examining in detail the provisions of the Civil Code that pertain to the rights and obligations of the co-owners. This is followed by an explanation of how these have changed due to the promulgation of Article 495A which has resulted in weakening the rights of co-owners due to the provisions of the forced sale. In the second chapter the author then proceeds to analyse thoroughly the intention of the legislator by referring to the parliamentary debates regarding the article. The reasons as to why members of Parliament disagreed and agreed with the article were also cited. Those in favour valued this new concept of sale since they saw it as a tool in decreasing the number of vacant properties in Malta and to further improve the economic market. In the third chapter arguments are given by a number of different cases that provide different decisions regarding article 495A. This is because, although generally the sale tends to be accepted by the Court, there were instances were such sale was rejected since it went against the requisites of the article.