Powerless neighbours unable to stop Birkirkara squatters’ planning permit

Birkirkara residents have been powerless against what they insist are squatters who have now managed to secure a bona fide planning permit for internal works.

Residents who spoke to MaltaToday say their unwelcome neighbours gained access into the Triq Has-Sajjied home years back, turning its back-garden and rooms into a makeshift horse stable, before animal welfare officers put a stop to it.

But since then, they have managed to obtain Planning Authority permission to extend a back room and carry out internal works on their roofs, despite no legal claim to the property’s ownership.

Neighbours were gob-smacked at the PA’s approval of the permit, despite their objections that the applicants had no legal title to the house they had occupied.

As noted by the PA’s case officer, there were various objections from neighbours pointing out that the applicants were not the owners of the house.

But the neighbours are also hampered by the fact that the owner, an Englishman, passed away in the UK and his heirs, all nephews and nieces, have shown no interest in claiming the property.

The late owner, Derrick James Chick, was sold the property back in 1988, but only his heirs can take legal steps to evict the squatters.

Objectors told the PA that the dwelling did not have an energy meter, and was being used to rear farm animals, lacking sanitary facilities or animal feed storage and “resulting in a dirty mess to the extent that one can witness rats and mice all over the place... a washroom [permit] was granted which is being used as a big bird cage.”

In the past, animal welfare officers had to remove animals housed in the makeshift farm due to malnourishment and lack of hygiene. Residents complained that the pigeon homing cage had turned into a nuisance for the rest of the street, with droppings attracting vermin.

But the PA’s case officer opined that while no proof was forthcoming on who owned the premises, and while applicant Victor Pace did not claim ownership, this was “not strictly a planning matter [so] no cognisance of this issue was taken.”

With the planning directorate washing its hands off the matter that the applicants were not owners of the house, the PA could only offer objectors the unsatisfactory suggestion of expensive and time-consuming court action.

The proposed works include replacing the garden shed with a larger “study room”, and paving over the soil area – a suggestion that the former ‘farm’ will be formalised into a residential setting.

The old house’s roofs will also be replaced. No other storeys will be added or rooms added.

The PA’s enforcement section did, however, carry out a site visit over complaints that the washroom was used as a pigeon loft: there they noticed two empty cages in the courtyard and nine chickens kept inside a room. Instead the enforcement officer requested clearance from the Environmental Health and Veterinary Services for the pigeon loft. The Paces later told the PA they had removed the pigeon loft.

Complaints from neighbours date as back as 2001, with several complaints made to the police department to report the abusive squatting and use of the residents as a makeshift farm.

Letters were also sent to the Prime Minister and ministers to complaint about vermin and lack of sanitary facilities. Letters to the mayor of Birkirkara were met with unsatisfactory responses, with the council replying that it was powerless to intervene except to file reports with the authorities.