        LAND (COMPULSORY EVICTION)      [ CAP. 228.  1
CHAPTER 228
LAND (COMPULSORY EVICTION) ACT
To make provision for the compulsory eviction from land and tenements
owned or administered by Government or held by Government under any
other title.
(4th April, 1972) *
Enacted by ACT XIV of 1972, as amended by Acts XIII of 1983 and VIII
of 1990.
 
Short title.
Act.
Interpretation.
"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Land;
"land" means any land or building owned or administered by the
Government or any part thereof and any land or building or part
thereof held by the Government under any title;
"order" means an order in writing given by the Commissioner. 
Compulsory 
eviction.
3. (1) The Commissioner, if it appears to him to be necessary
or expedient to do so, may in his absolute discretion order the
compulsory eviction of any person from any land which is occupied
by such person without any title or on encroachment terms and the
removal therefrom of any movable effects, within a specified
period of time to be stated in the order, and may for the purpose
give such directions as appear to him necessary so that any such
order may be put into effect with the least possible delay.
(2) If the occupier of any such land does not comply with the
order within the period of time so specified, the Commissioner may
instruct any Police officer not below the rank of inspector to take
such steps and use such force as appear to him reasonably
necessary for securing compliance with the order and with any
directions given under the last foregoing subsection and for the
removal from such land of any movable effect existing therein.
(3) The Commissioner shall not be required to provide
alternative storage for any such movable effects existing in the land
and will not be held responsible for their safe custody and the
removal of such movable effects shall be carried out at the
complete risk and expense of the evictee:
  Provided that before the removal of such movable effects an
inventory of such effects shall be made and such inventory shall be
signed by the Commissioner or his representative deputed by him
in writing for that purpose and by a Police officer not below the
rank of inspector:
  Provided further that the evictee shall be liable to refund any
* See  Government Notice No. 258 of 4th April, 1972.
  2     CAP. 228. ]                LAND (COMPULSORY EVICTION)   
expense which may have been incurred by the government for any
storage of movable effects removed from the land and shall be
liable further to pay compensation for such storage whether in
Government property or elsewhere and to pay any costs ancillary or
consequential to such storage.
Power to require 
information.
4. (1) Any person, if requested by the Commissioner so to do,
shall furnish to the Commissioner such information in his
possession relating to any land, being information which may
reasonably be demanded of him in connection with or which the
Commissioner deems necessary for the taking possession of any
land.
(2) Any information required under the last preceding
subsection is to be given in a statement in writing to be signed by
the person giving the information. In the case of an illiterate or a
person otherwise incapacitated from writing the Commissioner may
require the statement by the person giving the information to be
marked by that person in the presence of two witnesses who shall
sign the statement.
Service. 5. Service of any order, notice or direction on any person for
the purposes of this Act shall be effected by the Executive Police.
Absentees and 
service thereon.
6. In the case of any person absent from Malta any order,
notice or direction shall for the purpose of this Act be validly
served on any known lawful representative of such absent person
or, in the absence of a known lawful representative, on such
person’s husband or wife or on a near relation of such person by
consanguinity or affinity.
Power to sell 
movable effects.
7. If within one month of the expiry of the specified period of
time stated in an order for the removal of movable effects the
person upon whom such order was served fails to remove such
effects from the land or from any other place, as the case may be,
where any such movable effects may have been placed by the
Commissioner, the Commissioner shall have the right to sell any
such movable effects by public auction:
  Provided that, without prejudice to the provisions contained in
section 8 hereof, the proceeds of such public auction after
deduction of any amounts due to the Government for the causes
mentioned in subsection (3) of section 3 hereof and in respect of
transport expenses and auction fees, shall be paid to the person to
whom the said movable effects belonged.
Failure of 
purchaser to take 
delivery and 
remove effects.
8. If any person, having purchased movable effects at a public
auction held under the provisions of the previous section, fails
within fourteen days from the date of the sale of any such movable
effects to him, to take delivery of and remove any such movable
effects, then any such movable effects not removed by the
purchaser shall be forfeited to Government and the evictee or
purchaser shall have no right to claim any compensation or refund
of the price or any part thereof paid for such movable effects as the
case may be.
        LAND (COMPULSORY EVICTION)      [ CAP. 228.  3
Penal provisions. 
Amended by:
XIII. 1983.5.
9. Any person who without lawful excuse, the proof whereof
shall lie on him, commits a breach of the provisions contained in
section 4 hereof whether by refusing to supply information or by
supplying false information when required under the provisions of
this Act to give information, shall be guilty of an offence under this
Act and shall on conviction be liable to a fine ( multa ) of not less
than ten liri but not exceeding one hundred liri or to imprisonment
for a period not exceeding three months or to both such fine and
imprisonment.
Competence in 
respect of offences 
under this Act. 
Amended by: 
VIII. 1990.3.
10. Proceedings for an offence under section 9 of this Act shall
be instituted by the Police in the Court of Magistrates sitting as a
court of criminal judicature:
  Provided that if any higher punishment is applicable to the
offence under any other law whenever the circumstances set out in
such other law concur in the offence, the punishment laid down in
that other law shall apply and it shall be tried by the appropriate
court.
