How Many Days Do You Have to Register a Rental Contract in Malta?

Thirty days from the start of the lease - not ten. The Private Residential Leases Act (Cap. 604) was amended in 2024, and the change is now fully in force, but a lot of pages online (including some of Letify's own older content) still repeat the old ten-day figure. Getting the number wrong matters: an unregistered lease is not just late paperwork, it is legally void.

Where the ten-day figure came from

When Cap. 604 first came into force in 2020, Article 4(2) gave landlords ten days from the commencement of a private residential lease to register it with the Housing Authority. Act XX of 2024 amended that same article and extended the window to thirty days. The obligation to register still begins the moment the lease starts - the thirty days is purely how long a landlord has to act on it before a late fee applies.

Because the change happened mid-cycle, plenty of guides written before 2024 (and some written since, copying the old ones) never got updated. If you are reading a 10-day figure anywhere else, treat it as outdated.

What has to be ready before you register

The thirty days is not just a countdown - it is the time available to assemble everything the Housing Authority actually needs. Cap. 604 requires the lease itself to be in writing and signed by both parties, plus a photo-based inventory with short descriptions attesting the condition of the property and any furniture or appliances supplied. That inventory requirement applies even to unfurnished lets, where it still has to document the state of the property itself at handover.

In practice that means a landlord needs the signed contract, dated photographs of every room, and the tenant's and landlord's identification details ready before submitting online at rentregistration.mt. Leaving the photo inventory until after moving day is the most common reason landlords end up registering close to - or past - the thirty-day mark.

The 120 euro late fee

Since 1 September 2025, registering a lease more than thirty days after it starts triggers a 120 euro Late Registration Fee, charged on top of the normal registration cost. This applies to any private residential lease signed from 1 January 2020 onward - it is not limited to new contracts.

What happens if you never register

The consequences go well beyond the 120 euro fee. Cap. 604 states that a private residential lease which is not registered is null and void - which in practice means a landlord who skipped registration cannot rely on the contract in court. That includes claiming unpaid rent, enforcing the notice terms, or evicting a tenant who stops paying. The contract exists on paper, but it has no legal teeth.

Malta's Housing Authority can also fine a landlord who fails to register a lease, ranging from 2,500 euros up to 10,000 euros for non-compliance with the Act's registration duty - separate from and on top of the late fee. And if a landlord simply never gets around to it, the tenant is entitled to register the lease directly with the Housing Authority themselves, at the landlord's cost.

Does the 30-day rule apply to every lease?

Yes. The registration duty in Cap. 604 covers every private residential lease - long lets with a di fermo lock-in period and short private residential leases aimed at students or seasonal workers alike. Renewals matter too: if a lease auto-renews because notice was not given in time, the original registration still stands for that lease, but a genuinely new contract with a new tenant starts its own thirty-day clock from day one.

Fees differ by scenario. A first registration within the thirty-day window costs 10 euros. If a fixed-term lease ends and both sides sign on for another period, that counts as a renewal and needs re-registering for 5 euros - unless the original contract already states it renews automatically each year, in which case no further fee is due.

How registration actually happens

Registration is done online through the Housing Authority's portal at rentregistration.mt, using the signed lease and the photo-based inventory the law also requires. The Housing Authority says vetting a submission can take up to ten working days, which is another reason to file early in the thirty-day window rather than on the last possible day. For the full step-by-step process, see how to register a rental contract in Malta as a landlord.

Registering on time is not just about avoiding fines. A registered lease is what lets a landlord apply a legal rent increase during the term, and it is a precondition for claiming the reduced rate rebate on rental income tax under TA24 for longer registered contracts. Skipping registration quietly costs a landlord more than the 120 euro fee suggests.

The rule in short

• Landlords have thirty days from the lease's commencement date to register it with the Housing Authority - extended from ten days by Act XX of 2024.
• Registering more than thirty days late triggers a 120 euro Late Registration Fee, in force since 1 September 2025.
• An unregistered lease is null and void - unenforceable in court - and non-compliance can be fined separately, from 2,500 to 10,000 euros.
• If a landlord never registers, the tenant can register the lease themselves at the landlord's expense.
• The rule applies to every private residential lease: long lets, short lets and genuinely new contracts after a previous tenancy ends.