4.  The applicant were respectively born in 1949, 1941, 1943, 1946 and 1956 and live in Rome. 5.  They are the owners of a flat in Rome, which they had let to M.P., S.P. and L.P. 6.  In a registered letter of 19 June 1991, the applicants informed the tenants that they intended to terminate the lease on expiry of the term on 31 December 1991 and asked them to vacate the premises by that date. 7.  In a writ served on the tenants on 5 July 1991, the applicants reiterated their intention to terminate the lease and summoned the tenants to appear before the Rome Magistrate. 8.  By a decision of 18 December 1991, which was made enforceable on the same day, the Rome Magistrate upheld the validity of the notice to quit and ordered that the premises be vacated by 30 November 1992. 9.  On 19 December 1992, the applicants served notice on the tenants requiring them to vacate the premises. 10.  On 20 January 1993, they informed the tenants that the order for possession would be enforced by a bailiff on 5 March 1993. 11.  Between 5 March 1993 and 2 February 2000, the bailiff made twenty-seven attempts to recover possession. Each attempt proved unsuccessful, as the applicants were never granted the assistance of the police in enforcing the order for possession. 12.  In the meantime, on 6 October 1998, one of the applicants, P.C., had made a statutory declaration that he urgently required the premises as accommodation for his son. 13.  On 3 February 2000, the tenants left spontaneously the premises and the applicants recovered possession of the flat.