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Housing rights in Malta: registration, deposit, notice, and the 'ten people in a flat' problem

Every long let must be registered with the Housing Authority by the landlord. Six-month lock-in on a one-year lease, a month's notice, 5% cap on renewal, two per bedroom.

Mis à jour le 5 novembre 2026 · 3 min de lecture · English

Your lease is not just where you sleep. Identità will not issue or renew a permit without a Housing Authority registration for your address. So an unregistered room is a permit problem before it is a comfort problem. The rules below are from the Housing Authority’s own FAQ on the Private Residential Leases Act, as amended in September 2024.

Registration

  • The landlord must register every private residential lease with the Housing Authority. The Authority’s 2025 catalogue gives 30 days from the start of the lease; some older government pages still say ten. If the landlord does not, the tenant can register it.
  • Registration is online. Foreigners without a Maltese e-ID create an account with the Housing Authority.
  • Once approved, an automated email goes to all parties. That email, or the Authority’s approval letter, is what Identità wants, together with the Lease Agreement Professional Attestation Form stamped by a lawyer or notary.
  • A landlord who “cannot register” is a landlord whose flat may not be legal to let. Walk away. How to find a flat and what to refuse has its own page.

Lease length and leaving

For a one-year lease:

  • A six-month lock-in period, called “di fermo”: you cannot leave in the first six months.
  • After that, one month’s notice from you, by registered mail.
  • For a two-year lease, two months’ notice; for three years, three months.
  • On renewal of a one-year lease, you are bound for a minimum of three months.

The landlord must tell you at least three months before the end if the lease will not be renewed, sent to the registered address. Sent there, it counts as received even if you say you never saw it. If you are leaving the country as well, the leaving Malta guide covers the flat alongside notice and tax.

Rent increases

No limit on new contracts. On renewals, and on contracts of two years or more, the rent increase cannot exceed 5%.

Deposit

A deposit is optional for the landlord, but the amount must be written in the contract and in the registration, and “0” if none. Disputes about deposit retention are the most common case at the Housing Authority’s Adjudicating Panel, which hears money claims up to €5,000 on registered leases without going to court. Take photos of every room on the day you move in and the day you move out, with the date visible.

Occupancy

Two residents per bedroom, up to a maximum of ten in a property. A two-bedroom flat: four people. Six beds in one bedroom is not a “shared room”, it is a breach, and the employer or landlord who arranged it knows. Bringing your family to Malta, flat included, has its own page.

Breach and eviction

If you break the contract, the landlord must send a judicial letter giving 15 days to comply, and only then go to the Rent Regulation Board. The Board, not the landlord, decides evictions. Nobody can change the locks on you.

The register of defaulters

Since September 2024 a landlord who wins a case at the Adjudicating Panel can ask for the tenant to be added to a register of defaulters, which future landlords can check. Pay what you owe, keep the receipts, and the register never hears of you.

Who to call

Housing Authority rent registration: +356 2299 1010, customer.care.ha@ha.gov.mt. Problems adding an address: addonaddress@ha.gov.mt. The Authority also has a form for reporting illegal lets. The other offices and organisations are in the who-helps-you guide.

Check this at the source

Ce guide donne des informations générales, pas des conseils juridiques. Les règles changent. Les sources officielles indiquées à la fin ont le dernier mot.

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