 DEVELOPED LAND (VALUATION)   ġ CAP. 110.       1
CHAPTER 110 
DEVELOPED LAND (VALUATION) ORDINANCE 
To make provision for the valuation of developed lands in Malta.
20th June, 1941
ORDINANCE VIII of 1941, as amended by Ordinance VI of 1943; Legal
Notice 4 of 1963; Acts: XXXI of 1966 and LVIII of 1974: Legal Notice 148
of 1975; and Acts: XXII of 1976, VIII of 1990, XXIV of 1995 and VI of
2001.
Short title.
(Valuation) Ordinance.
Definitions. 
Amended by: 
VI.1943.2; 
L.N. 4 of 1963; 
XXII. 1976.4.
2. In this Ordinance and in any rules made under this
Ordinance, unless the subject or context otherwise requires-
"annual value" means, subject to the provisions of articles 3 and
4 -
( a ) unless the developed tenement was on the 31st March,
1939, let furnished, the gross annual rent at which it
was let on the 31st March, 1939, or, if it was not, on
that day, let or let separately or in existence, then the
gross annual rent for which it might on that day
reasonably be expected to have been let unfurnished,
from year to year, having regard to the purposes for
which it was then being used or occupied or would,
disregarding, at the date of assessment, intervening
damage, if any, arising from enemy or counter-enemy
action, and ordinary wear and tear and any works in
connection with an air raid shelter or for temporary
purposes arising out of the war, have been suitable,
less in every case, whether falling for treatment under
any part of this definition or under article 3 and 4, the
yearly amount of any pious burden (other than tithes)
affecting the developed tenement and a deduction of
ten  per   centum ;
( b ) if the developed tenement was on 3lst March, 1939, let
furnished but had been let unfurnished at any time
during the five years preceding that date, the last gross
annual rent at which the developed tenement was let
unfurnished;
( c ) if the developed tenement was on the 3lst March.
1939, let furnished and had not been let unfurnished at
any time during the five years preceding that date, a
sum computed at three and one half  per centum  on its
capital value as determined in connection with the last
conveyance by way of onerous title, or in connection
with the last partition or judicial valuation executed or
made in respect of that developed tenement during the
five years preceding the 31st March, 1939, or, in
default of any change of ownership thus affected
  2        CAP. 110. ħ               DEVELOPED LAND (VALUATION)
within the period stated, on its capital value as at the
31st March, 1939, as mutually agreed upon, or, in
default of agreement, to be appraised or determined by
the Board of Special Commissioners for Land
Valuation;
"date of assessment" means the 20th June, 1941, or, in the case
only of developed tenements which were unfinished or not in
existence on that day, the day of completion of such development
tenements;
"developed tenement" means a tenement which consists or, apart
from damage, if any, from enemy or counter-enemy action, would,
at the date of assessment still consist of a building or part of a
building for whatever purpose it was built and includes any land
(including any subsidiary building) which might be expected
ordinarily to be or to have been occupied with the first mentioned
building or part of a building and includes the domestic garden of
such first mentioned building or part of a building but does not
include any plant and machinery, if any, therein or any open park or
waste or agricultural land, if any, included in the tenement of which
such developed tenement (then referred to herein as a "developed
tenement within a larger tenement") forms a part;
"Land Valuation Officer" means the officer appointed by the
Prime Minister as Land Valuation Officer for the purposes of this
Ordinance;
"lease" does not include emphyteusis but includes occupation in
virtue of a requisition order;
"owner" means the person who on a given date receives, or
would immediately be entitled to let and to receive the rental on
lease of a tenement, and the tutor, curator, administrator, procurator
or other representative of any such owner, or when such owner
cannot readily be traced, such person as shall, without further
evidence, be appointed on the application of the Land Valuation
Officer by the Civil Court, Second Hall, and includes also, from the
date of transfer, any person to whom the interest of the owner has
been transferred between the date of assessment and the
ascertainment of the assessed annual value of a tenement:
  Provided that in the case of a developed tenement held in
common and in respect of which it is not to the knowledge of the
Land Valuation Officer that there is a common administrator, the
owner shall be deemed to be the common administrator whom the
co-owners, within ten days from the date when the Land Valuation
Officer shall require them to do so, shall advise that officer that
they have appointed, or, in default of such advice, the co-owner or
a third party either of whom the Land Valuation Officer at his
discretion shall appoint to be the common administrator (who shall
be entitled to let the developed tenement and receive the rent
thereof and otherwise to administer the property as if he were an
administrator duly appointed by a competent court to administer
immovable property) on such further conditions as may seem
equitable to him in his discretion, including the right to retain out
of the gross income of the developed tenement administered a
 DEVELOPED LAND (VALUATION)   ġ CAP. 110.       3
commission not exceeding four  per centum  of that income in the
case of a co-owner and not exceeding five  per centum  in the case of
a third party;
"prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this
Ordinance;
"tenement" means, subject to its special application in the case of
a developed tenement within a larger tenement, any land owned as
a homogenous unit, but does not include-
( a ) tenements or parts of tenements used as mortuary
chapels or used solely as churches, chapels or places
of public worship, or 
( b ) tenements the whole legal interest in which, other than
any lease, is vested in the Government of Malta;
( c ) tool-rooms, watch-rooms or other isolated huts or
small buildings, in fields, which are not intended to be
used habitually as a permanent dwelling place, and are
not such as to be reasonably suitable for letting
independently of the field on which they stand.
Special assessment 
where rent too low
3. When, in the opinion of the Land Valuation Officer, the
gross annual rent of any developed tenement, as ascertained by
reference to an actual letting under the definition of "annual value"
in article 2, is too low, the Land Valuation Officer may by notice
order the assessment of the annual gross rental of such tenement at
three and one-half  per centum  of the value of such tenement as at
the 3lst March, 1939, such value to be mutually agreed upon, or, in
default of agreement, to be appraised or determined by the Board of
Special Commissioners for Land Valuation.
Assessment of 
building held with 
other land.
4. The annual gross rent of a developed tenement within a
larger tenement shall be deemed to be the annual gross rent at
which it might have been expected to let from year to year
unfurnished, with the free option to rent, at ordinary market rates,
any open park or waste or agricultural land which in fact forms part
of that larger tenement.
Return to Land 
Valuation Officer .
Amended by: 
VI. 1943.4. 
5. (1) The owner on the date of assessment of each developed
tenement in Malta, shall, within forty days after such date, or
within such further period as may be allowed in writing by the
Land Valuation Officer in any particular case, deliver to the Land
Valuation Officer full and true particulars of such tenement on and
in accordance with the prescribed form, and with such
accompanying evidence as may be prescribed.
(2) Every co-owner on the date of assessment shall within
fifteen days notify in writing the Land Valuation Officer of the
developed tenement or developed tenements in which he has a joint
interest, and whether or not there is a common administrator in
respect of that developed tenement or those developed tenements.
Assessment by 
acceptance of 
return.
6. Where the Land Valuation Officer does not, within four
months after the expiry of the term, original or prolonged,
mentioned in article 5(1), give notice to the owner that he does not
accept the annual value put forward by the owner therein, then such
  4        CAP. 110. ħ               DEVELOPED LAND (VALUATION)
annual value so put forward shall be the assessed annual value of
the developed tenement to which it relates.
Procedure on 
challenge by Land 
Valuation Officer.
7. When the Land Valuation Officer gives notice that he does
not, or will or may not under article 3, accept the annual value put
forward or required under article 5, and no agreement is reached
between him and the owner on such figure within one month, or
such further period as may be allowed in writing by the Land
Valuation Officer in any particular case, after delivery of such
notice, then the Land Valuation Officer shall by application refer
the assessment, giving particulars of the figures in dispute, for final
decision by the Board of Special Commissioners for Land
Valuation. The Land Valuation Officer may similarly make
application for a decision where for any other reason no agreement
has been reached:
  Provided that where an owner has failed to make a return,
the Land Valuation Officer may proceed to assess his developed
tenement after thirty days from the last day on which such return
was due, and such assessment shall only be appealable to and by
the special leave of the Board of Special Commissioners for Land
Valuation, on such terms as such Board shall deem just.
Supplementary 
return by owner. 
Added by: 
VI. 1943.5.
8. (1) The owner of any developed tenement in respect of
which a return has been delivered in accordance with the provisions
of article 5 shall, before commencing thereafter to make any
structural alteration of or addition to such developed tenement or to
effect any renovation, deliver to the Land Valuation Officer full and
true particulars of the proposed works on and in accordance with
the prescribed form.
(2) Within ten days after the completion of the works of which
a return has been delivered as aforesaid, or when, for any reason,
the owner has not proceeded with the whole of such works, within
ten days after the completion of such works as have in fact been
carried out, the owner of such developed tenement shall deliver to
the Land Valuation Officer full and true particulars of such works
on and in accordance with the prescribed form.
(3) Whenever the Land Valuation Officer has reasonable
grounds for belief that as the result of any structural alteration of or
addition to any developed tenement the annual value of such
developed tenement has been increased he shall proceed to re-
assess such developed tenement and shall give the owner thereof
written notice of the re-assessed annual value of the developed
tenement together with reasonable details as to how that figure has
been calculated.
(4) If the owner of such developed tenement does not accept
the re-assessed annual value and no agreement is reached between
him and the Land Valuation Officer within two weeks after the
receipt of such notice or such further period as may be allowed in
writing by the Land Valuation Officer in any particular case, then
the Land Valuation Officer shall by application refer the re-
assessment for final decision by the Board of Special
Commissioners appointed by this Ordinance.
 DEVELOPED LAND (VALUATION)   ġ CAP. 110.       5
Board of Special 
Commissioners for 
Land Valuation. 
Amended by:
VI. 1943.6; 
LVIII.1974.68; 
L.N. 148 of 1975;
VIII.1990.3; 
XXIV.1995.362;
VI. 2001.10. 
Cap. 12.
9. (1) The President of Malta may appoint one or more
Boards of Special Commissioners for Land Valuation, each board
consisting of three members of whom one, who shall be a retired
judge or a retired magistrate or a person who has practised as an
advocate in Malta for a period or periods amounting, in the
aggregate, to seven years, shall be chairman. Before entering upon
their duties the chairman and members shall take and subscribe an
oath, before the Attorney General, to exercise their functions under
this Act with impartiality and in accordance with the law.
(2) There shall be no appeal from the decision of a Board of
Special Commissioners for Land Valuation.
(3) Proceedings of such Board shall be summary and may on
the application of the owner be held  in camera , and no record of the
evidence need be kept.
(4) Witnesses may be called either by the Land Valuation
Officer or by the owner at the hearing, and no adjournment shall be
granted save for grave cause in prejudice of justice.
(5) Subject to the foregoing provisions of this article, the
ordinary rules of civil procedure shall be followed so far as is
compatible with summary proceedings. The determination shall be
deposited with the Registrar of Courts and shall not be accessible to
the general public without the consent in writing of the owner
concerned. The costs of the proceedings shall be summarily taxed
by the Board, and shall be paid by the Government or by the owner
according as the annual value ascertained shall not or shall exceed
by one-fiftieth the value put forward by the owner.
Cap. 12.
of Organization and Civil Procedure upon the Civil Court, First
Hall.
Any warrant or order issued by the Board shall be signed by
the Chairman thereof and certified by the registrar.
The Registry of the Courts in Malta, or, as the case may be,
the Registry of the Courts of Magistrates (Gozo) shall be the
registry of the Board.
Assistant Land 
Valuation Officer. 
Amended by:
L.N. 4 of 1963.
10. The Prime Minister may from time to time appoint such a
number as he deems necessary of Assistant Land Valuation
Officers.
Form of notices.
Officer under this Ordinance or any rule thereunder shall be signed
by the Land Valuation Officer or by an Assistant Land Valuation
Officer, and every such notice shall be valid if such signature is
duly printed or written thereon, provided that any notice requiring
the personal attendance of any person before the Land Valuation
Officer shall be signed by the latter personally.
(2) Any such signature to a notice or order shall be taken as the
signature of that person unless the contrary be shown.
Service of notices.
by being sent through registered post to his last known business or
  6        CAP. 110. ħ               DEVELOPED LAND (VALUATION)
private address, and shall, in the latter case, be deemed to have
been received in the ordinary course of post, and in proving such
service it shall be sufficient to prove that the letter containing the
notice was properly addressed and posted.
(2) If a person on whom a notice will be served cannot be
found, or if his address is not known, a notice posted upon the
tenement to which the notice refers and also at the nearest Police
station thereto shall be deemed to be sufficient notice upon such
person.
(3) Where the name of any such person is not known, it shall be
sufficient to designate him in any notice as the "owner" of the
tenement without further description.
(4) Notice may also be given to any specified person or to any
specified class of persons by notice published in the Government
Gazette.
(5) Notice served on any one co-owner, shall be deemed to
have been served on all his fellow co-owners.
Notice to attend 
and produce 
documents.
13. The Land Valuation Officer may by notice call on any
person whom he has reasonable cause to believe to be the owner or
the tenant of a developed tenement to attend before him during
office hours to give any particulars required regarding such
tenement, and to produce any books or other documents relating to
it which are in such person’s possession or under his control, and it
shall be the duty of such person to attend, to give true particulars
and to produce such books or other documents accordingly.
Entry to inspect. 14. The Land Valuation Officer, any Assistant Land Valuation
Officer and any person authorized in writing in that behalf by either
of them, may, on reasonable notice, enter any tenement within
reasonable hours of daylight for the purpose of inspection and
taking particulars of such tenement. In case of unreasonable refusal
of entry, the assistance of a Police officer not below the rank of
sub-inspector may be availed of to enforce entry, which however
will not excuse the occupier from any penalty to which he may
have rendered himself liable.
Penalties. 
Amended by: 
XIII.1983.5; 
VIII. 1990.3.
15. Any owner or any person who fails to comply with any
obligation placed upon him by this Ordinance or by any rule
thereunder shall be liable on conviction before a Court of
Magistrates to a fine of not less than ten liri or more than fifty liri:
  Provided that if the offence was knowingly giving any
material false return or particulars, the fine shall not be less than
fifty liri or more than one hundred liri.
Rules. 
Amended by: 
VI.1943.7;
L.N. 4 of 1963; 
XXXI. 1966.2.
16. (1) The Minister responsible for justice may make rules
for the further and better carrying out, subject to the provisions of
this Ordinance, of all or any of the provisions thereof.
(2) All rules made under this Ordinance shall be laid before the
House of Representatives as soon as may be after they are made,
and, if a resolution is passed within the next subsequent seven days
on which the House has sat next after such rule is laid before it that
 DEVELOPED LAND (VALUATION)   ġ CAP. 110.       7
the rule be annulled, it shall thenceforth be void, but without
prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder, or
to the making of any new rule.
