Clients despair over cash held up by COVID victim’s widow

Clients of notary Ivan Barbara who died in April 2021 in India after contracting COVID-19, have been faced with a wall of silence over the monies they entrusted to Barbara after signing promise-of-sale agreements for property acquisitions.

Barbara, 47, died in a hospital outside New Delhi after contracting COVID-19 during his time there with his wife, while in the process of adopting a girl. The notary tragically passed away minutes before he was set to board an air ambulance from Delhi to Malta.

Yet four months since then, Barbara’s clients have had to lawyer up after his wife Roseanne was unable to disburse refunds on their promise-of-sale agreements from her late husband’s client account.

While the Notarial Council is aware of the case, attempts by MaltaToday to get in touch with the Barbaras’ lawyer, Phyllis Aquilina, proved futile. A request for comment from Rosanne Barbara did not go answered.

As recently as at 29 July, Rosanne Barbara had told clients of her late husband, to speak to her lawyer, claiming the disbursement process was “still ongoing”.

According to chats between Barbara and one of the concerned clients, seen by this newspaper, her lawyer had informed the clients that Barbara has refused her husband’s inheritance, so as not to assume his pending debts.

The client said that in one of his conversations with Rosanne Barbara, the widow had told him there was not enough money to cover the clients’ claims.

Another client of Barbara, posting a comment in a Facebook group discussing the case, claimed the late notary had not deposited the funds that are kept in escrow in a clients’ account, but in his personal accounts. “The wife is asking for payments so she will pass on the files, but will not guarantee that any money left as deposits or otherwise are paid, even in the future.”

The clients’ money represents deposits paid on forthcoming property purchases, usually amounting to 10% of the sale value. The money is supposed to be kept in escrow by the notary, in a client account, up until the final property sale agreement is signed. The buyer’s deposit is then passed on to the seller together with the rest of the transaction. The deposits are used to seal a promise-of-sale on the property, for the duration of the notary’s researches on the house ownership. Should the buyer not come forward to finally acquire the property, the deposit is forfeited in favour of the vendor.

The Notarial Council is working with the Commissioner for Revenue and the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) to develop an integrated online system that allows near real-time registration of deeds and tax payments, with banks, departments, notaries and property vendors and sellers notified immediately. The system could strengthen legal certainty and act as a safeguard against abuse by registering monies held in escrow.