sarahlou123

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EW MASTER

Latest post on 10 February 2014 - 10:31

I have been reading this forum and indeed other expat forums for the past couple of years and have lately been taking great interest in the whole landlord/rent increase debacle which is currently the hottest topic in Dubai! I thought I would add my two pennies to the discussion. d Our apartment ha been up for sale for about two years (a large local bank was the landlord). Needless to say, the bank didn't give us the requisite twelve month notice as they obviously wanted to hedge their bets and keep rent rolling in just in case the apartment didn't sell. In December, the apartment was eventually sold (to a neighbour in my building). The landlord and his wife visited and hinted that they would want us out and at the very least, would be expecting a 20,000dhs (40%) annual rent increase. DH and I both told them separately that this was illegal and that in order to evict us they had to give us 12 months' notice and that the eviction had to be based on one of four conditions. We also enlightened them about the rent calculator! Needless to say, all this fell on deaf ears and an eviction email was sent, giving us just over 100 days to get out. We refused to accept this notice and emailed back stating that any eviction had to be set out in accordance with Laws 26 and 33 (Landlords and Tenants must read both laws in tandem as Law 33 supercededs some of the clauses in Law 26) and that a formal notarised notice must be issued in the first instance. The landlord then got a notarised eviction notice issued (which is why we are convinced he thinks he is in the right, but it seems the Courts will notarise anything ergardless of its legality!) giving us another few months. We again emailed him back stating the laws and told him that as we had not been able to resolve this, we would be opening a formal dispute with the Rent Committee. DH and I both tried to ring the RC about 10 times each a day and eventually got through - it seems that business is not conducted by phone and it can be terribly frustrating trying to get through on the phone. I also gather that the RC will not deal with 'off the street' visitors with enquiries. Your only option is to submit a dispute. We had all our emails and his responses legally translated into Arabic and submitted these together with our lease (in Arabic and English), the EJARI, DEWA Bill, Passport and Visa and the formal application form (needs to be typed in Arabic - get this done at any of the Typing Centres near Union Square Metro Station - they don't open until at least 8.30am). Submitting the documentation was fairly straightforward as we double checked we had everything and at least three copies (in the end these weren't needed). We got to the Rent Committee Offices early (they close at 2pm). We had two issues though - the computer system was down and we therefore couldn't pay the fee (3.5% of the annual rent) and had to go back the following day. The acknowledgement was also incorrect (after I got an Arabic-reading friend to translate this) as it stated the wrong apartment number under dispute but another visit sorted this out. Everything is in Arabic so you have to trust that the Typing Centre fully understands your case and translates this accordingly. If they made a mistake, it will cost us time and efford to re-submit the documents and we will only find this out at the court hearing. This has all been a complete faff trying to get the documentation translated, taking three trips to the RC offices and the general stress of our landlord pushing us to accept the eviction. We have a hearing date in a couple of weeks and I gather that the proceedings will mostly be completed in English and should be over and done with in minutes as this is an open and shut case (according to the staff at the RC). The Judge's decision is final and there is no appeals process and the landlord will have to pay the 3.5% fee if he loses the case. The landlord has since sent us an email advising that IF a new lease is issued, that we will have to pay a rent increase. Of course, we emailed back and advised that we would accept an incease in accordance with the law (currently 10% in accordance with the calculator). I cannot work out whether my landlord is being naive or very cunning and calculated. He thinks that because he is a new landlord and has family circumstances which requires him to move his family into our apartment - aside from the fact that he is being kicked out of his apartment without the due notice from his landlord - that he will win the case. DH told him that the Judge will make his decision based on the law, not a case by case basis from landlords! Why he bought an apartment with sitting tenants when there are loads empty in my community is beyond me. He could have saved himself an awful lot of stress if he had either done his homework properly or bought an empty unit. Fortunately, our landlord thought he was doing the right thing by giving us plenty of notice to leave but this has given us sufficient time to lodge a dispute and make contingency plans. If your landlord insists on playing hardball with you, please take time to read stuff on the net (although some of the information is contradictory and confusing) but the minute you lodge a dispute, the clock effectively stops with your lease until a judgement is made. Your landlord cannot cut your DEWA off and if he does so, you should call the police. I know wasta counts for a lot here but apparent that doesn't cut it with the Rent Committee (but you never know who has who's ear). Lodging a dispute is a hassle but surely it is worth taking a day off work rather than than having to pay 30-50% more for an apartment or villa, agents fees (and dealing with unscrupulous agents in the first place), reconnecting Du, DEWA, etc and then actually having to move! There are some great landlords in Dubai who are glad to have their apartment rented and looked after and will play fair but there are increasing numbers who think they can treat tenants appallingly and demand ridiculous rental increases. I would far rather take a fight to the landlord and get at least one more year out of rent at the current level plus 10% or even 20% in accordance with the rent calculator. We are pretty sure the landlord will issue us with a 12 month eviction notice once our new lease is issued as he thinks he can get top dollar in rent for it. We also enlightened him that he couldn't rent the apartment to tenants for two years after an eviction notice has been issued on the grounds of his family moving in. If we are evicted, that will be our next fight and compensation is issued by the judge if he finds in the tenants' favour. A strong message needs to be sent to landlords that this behaviour and greed is unacceptable and I really hope that these landlords fail to find themselves tenants and end up seriously out of pocket. Expo fever has taken hold and sucked all morality out of some people. Expo is a long way off and there are plenty of apartments to be built before 2020. Weebs Well done Good Luck and let us know how you get on :-)

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sarahlou123

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