Practice · Real estate and hospitality · Glossary
Scheduled property
A scheduled property is a building or site entered on Malta’s national schedule of protected property. Works of any description in or on it need the permission of the Planning Board. So does demolishing, altering or extending it (art. 57(6), Development Planning Act, Chapter 552 of the Laws of Malta).
Work inside
Work inside a scheduled building still needs permission.
Development needs development permission (art. 70(1), Chapter 552). Article 70(2) defines development, and work that affects only the interior falls outside that definition.
Article 57(6) uses a wider word, “works”. It covers works of any description in or on a scheduled property. It also treats damage to or destruction of a scheduled property as demolition. So a hanging system, a fixing or a lighting track inside a scheduled building goes to the Planning Board, whether or not it is development.
Who consents
Two bodies are involved, with an extra step for conservation work.
The Planning Board gives permission under Chapter 552. By law the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage must be consulted (Cultural Heritage Act, Chapter 445). Conservation or restoration work must also clear a further step with the Superintendence.
For the full sequence and the fines, see an art programme in a listed building in Malta.
Sources
- Development Planning Act, Cap. 552, arts. 57(1), 57(6), consolidated text on legislation.mt
- Cap. 552, art. 57(6); Cultural Heritage Act, Cap. 445, arts. 2, 56, 59, consolidated texts on legislation.mt