Malta Lease Notice & Auto-Renewal Calculator

A private residential lease in Malta runs on three separate clocks, and missing any of them has a price:

• Your non-renewal letter. To end the lease when the term expires, you must post a registered letter at least three months beforehand Cap. 604·Art. 9(1). There is no other way to end it - a landlord cannot terminate early Cap. 604·Art. 9(5).
• The tenant's lock-in and notice. The tenant is bound for the first months of the lease (the di fermo), then free to leave with notice by registered letter Cap. 604·Art. 11.
• Auto-renewal. If no letter arrives in time, the lease renews for one year - and keeps renewing Cap. 604·Art. 9(2).

Both the lock-in and the notice period step with the length of the lease Cap. 604·Art. 11(1)–(2):

A tenant who walks out during the lock-in can lose up to one month's rent from the deposit, and you may claim compensation for the vacancy through the Adjudicating Panel Cap. 604·Art. 11(1). After a tacit renewal the brackets reset to something shorter: three months of lock-in from the renewal date, then one month's notice Cap. 604·Art. 11(6).

One more floor to know about: a long private residential lease cannot be agreed for less than a year - a shorter term is simply deemed one year Cap. 604·Art. 8.

Every notice in this system - yours and the tenant's - must travel by registered letter. The law is specific about what counts as proof: evidence that the letter was sent within the time limit to the correct address Cap. 604·Art. 9(1). Not that it was read, not that it was received - that it was posted in time.

In practice: send it from the post office, keep the registered-mail receipt stapled to a copy of the letter, and diarise the posting date this calculator gives you with a week of margin. A WhatsApp thread, however unambiguous, is not notice.

When the three-month letter isn't posted, the lease renews for one year on the same terms - and in the absence of a notice it continues renewing, year after year Cap. 604·Art. 9(2). The rent may only move within the capped increase (see the rent increase calculator).

If you and the tenant both want to continue on refreshed paperwork instead, register an express renewal - it may not change anything except the permitted rent increase, and it cannot be shorter than a year Cap. 604·Art. 9A. Remember that every renewal, express or tacit, must be registered with the Housing Authority (free if your contract has a renewal clause, €5 otherwise) - the registration wizard walks you through it.