Co-owners can refuse to sell to Gaffarena, court says

Property developer Marco Gaffarena cannot force the co-owners of a Valletta property to honour a promise of sale agreement, a court ruled on Thursday. The property, in Old Mint Street, has been at the heart of political controversy since 2015, when The Sunday Times of Malta revealed that the government paid €1.65 million for the share of the property Mr Gaffarena had at the time.  Mr Gaffarena had bought his share for a fraction of that price just weeks prior to the deal. The co-owners held the remaining one-fourth undivided share of 36, Old Mint Street, Valletta, corner with St Patrick Street. It was set to be transferred to Mr Gaffarena for €68,134 in terms of a promise of sale signed on October 31, 2014. But when The Sunday Times of Malta revealed that the property had been targeted by two expropriation orders, issued on January 22 and April 20, 2015, the co-sellers backtracked, refusing to proceed with the sale, which was set to be concluded by end of April 2016. The court upheld the co-vendors’ argument that they could not be forced to sell property which “no longer belonged to them.” In March 2018 a court had ruled that the Commissioner for Lands was wrong to only offer...