05 October, 2008

Eviction and Dubai Rent

A lot of expats rent properties, and these days, the situation can get quite confusing.

Look at this link, (enter in 'search for' "rent committee", and perhaps if any of you are looking for answers to your questions - about renting in Dubai - it might help.

Do any of our readers have notable experiences with landlords?

What is your experience with the Rent Committee?

What is the actual rent for your studio/1 bed/2 bed/3 bed+ versus advertised rates?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting info. We took our landlord to the rent committee last year because he was ignoring our requests to renew the lease. He didn't bother to attend a single meeting - upshot is we won. We asked the RC about renewing next year as the landlord has been saying he wants to move in (what to all 6 villas he owns here??) and the RC's reply was "these landlords think we're stupid"

When we asked about the rumours that the RC was going to be abolished next year the reply was "who do you think is starting these rumours?"

So our experience of the rent committee is its clunky process but these guys are sticking to the letter of the law and anyone who says different has probably had advice from his landlord!

EboRâguebi said...

Everyone has the Rugby in mind

Foreigner at home said...

I had a problem with my landlord... He served us with eviction notice 3 months prior to the renewal with the reason of demolition of the villa. I can understand the villa is old but when questioned about the papers granting him permission to demolish, he turned the blind eye. We approached the RC and they just renewed our agreement for another year after repeated request for the owner to appear in the dispute court.

Anyways, we are planning to move out of the villa because there has been no maintenance for the past 6 years and the roofs started to leak and the area is infested with rats...

Anonymous said...

Good for you for taking him to the RC! A big part of the problem is that too many people are too lazy to do it and just roll over and play dead. Or maybe they enjoy the victim mentality - "Dubai hates me and its out to get me" that we see so often.
The law is there to protect us but it won't if we don't use it. The more people who use it the more the landlords will get the message that greed is not going to work anymore.

Anonymous said...

4 comments on this issue, I guess people are intrested in the "Dark Side of Dubai" more than the Eviction issue....

Lirun said...

i think its unlikley that rents all around the world wont godown soon..

every major city has housing pressure and now with our stock market collapse the property market may also take a certain correction..

who knows..

we shall see..

rosh said...

Nicely said Rose! It's stunning many make up their minds thru mere "hear say". There's little/zero knowledge of laws or processes - perhaps not the best/transparent. However, most often willfully choose rolling over or that of a victim.

i*maginate said...

*love it or leave it - that's what I thought, too. It's interesting why there's not a lot of feedback on this subject.

Rose in Dubai and foreigner at home, not everyone has the same experience @ the RC.

Funny that you have to share "experiences" to see what the law is at that time.

There's a trend people who've stayed in their place for 3+ years can be evicted. As I recall, the last 2 years' rent cap was announced in December...

And I was just wondering what ppl's actual rents are for where they live. There seems to be a discrepancy between the actual, and the advertised. It's hard to find rental properties available that are actually advertised.

Very confusing.


"The more people who use it (RC) the more the landlords will get the message that greed is not going to work anymore."

- it's not landlords who get the message, it's the RC that sends the message across, and it seems sharing experiences helps us understand what that is.

Mr DtP said...

Out here in the sticks Al Ain is also feeling the Dubai (and AD) rent rises. Many folk from the Building Site are relocating here and consequently giving scumbag landlords here the easy opportunity of jacking up rents on their usually very well maintained properties. Well why wouldn't they especially after all the payrises?

There is now a shortage of vaguely reasonably decent property such that many newly employed teachers are still being housed in hotels.
As per most things here I cannot really see

Mr DtP said...

...sorry left off the end of my punchy hard hitting sentence which should have said...

...as per most things here, not a lot will probably occur until someone decrees that it should and then a few months later, someone later decrees that the previous decree is enforced.

Anonymous said...

>>not everyone has the same experience @ the RC.<<

Well, that's where it gets interesting. All of the people I know (about 11 to date) who have actually personally gone through the process say the same thing. Yes, it's a right pain, it takes a lot of time and you are well advised to take along an Arabic speaking friend if you are not fluent, but the guys at the RC will follow the letter of the law. Sure everyone knows someone who "has a friend who got screwed", but try to pin them down, get the phone number of the friend and it all goes quiet!

Victim mentality.

Anonymous said...

>>not everyone has the same experience @ the RC.<<

Now this is where it gets interesting for me. All of the people I know who have personally gone through the rent committee say the same thing, its clunky, time consuming but fundamentally they are applying the letter of the law, no exceptions.

But every time you say this to people who haven't gone through the process they can tell you about "a friend of a friend who got screwed". Ask them for the phone number of the friend so you can call them and sympathise and they go all quiet!

People love to think they are victims here. They love to think that big bad greedy Dubai is out to get them and they have no rights and it just isn't true.

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