See you in Court Pt 3

This morning Colin had to go to the Muncipality to collect the documents which were all in Arabic so we didn't know what the charges were until the letter came back from the translator at about 3:30pm.

We arrived at the Tribunal at 4pm and after a 3.5 hour wait our case number was called. First the Tribunal saw the Rocky Real Estate guy and heard his side of the story, then the Rocky guy came out and we went in. Contrary to what I had been told, the proceedings were 99% in Arabic but the really interesting part started when the Chairman said to Colin in English "Mr Rocky wants his money, you terminated on 19th May that is less than 2 months from the end of the lease…"
Colin replied, "Not true, we wrote to Rocky on 28 February, more than 2 months from the end of the lease."
"Where is this letter?" the Chairman demanded and Colin showed him the copy in the litigation file I'd prepared with photos, an index and numbered tabs.
"Did Rocky reply?" asked the Chairman.
"Yes" said Colin "They replied twice."
"Show me" said the Chairman, which Colin did and, by the look on the Chairman's face, he hadn't seen these letters and he wasn't pleased.

Thank you to Dunhill Madden Butler of Sydney for their training in preparing litigation files. I was able to show copies of all the correspondence between ourselves and Rocky starting from 28 February and it was quickly apparent that the Tribunal had not seen 4 of these letters. The Chairman did not appear to be at all impressed that Rocky Real Estate had led him down the garden path and almost into the potting shed.

In one corner of the room there was a man perched on a chair with his back against the photocopying machine. He sat there drinking coffee thoughout the whole proceedings looking completely disinterested in his surroundings while everyone ignored him. Who he was or why he was there I cannot tell you.

We were sent out of the room to wait while the Tribunal discussed the whole thing, we could hear raised voices coming from the Tribunal room (though of course they could have been discussing what to have for dinner) then we were called back in. Unfortunately language limitations meant that the correspondence, which was all in English, was taken at face value by the Tribunal (and even then with some difficulty) and there was no examination of intent. Rocky were seeking two months rent penalty, demanding that we continue to pay rent until the 'end of the case', plus court costs, plus an amount of AED9,137, a figure they have plucked out of the air and is unrelated to anything. After being given a lecture from one of the Tribunal members on how to write letters in English to landlords, apparently letters which must include the specific word "terminate" (forget the words leave, move out or end the lease) they ordered that we pay one month's rent as a penalty plus court costs.

We left the Court at the same time as the landlord's representative and he got into the lift with us. As the lift headed down he leant over and said to Colin in a very hushed, confidential tone "Don't worry Sir, I can help you."

Don't worry Sir, I can help you?? What does that mean? I thought for an instant that I'd been transported into an episode of the Sopranos. "Don't worry Sir, I can help you."? What do you think he meant, did he mean something like, "I can get your satellite tv hooked up for free" or possibly "For AED5,000 I can make all this disappear" or even "I can have somebody whacked". Who knows?

We'll pay the money as instructed by the Court and khallas, the matter is over and done with."Don't worry Sir, I can help you". Good grief.

Lesson: be specific when writing letters to Dubai landlords: don't try to be reasonable, don't say 'Dubai rents have plummeted, we're good tenants and we want to stay in the house, but not at the exorbitant rent we're currently paying, can we negotiate?' You have to say, 'Mate, we're outta here, khallas, that's it, we're gone'. Then go.

See you in Court Pt 1

Here's the background: Our previous landlord wouldn't drop the rent at the end of our 12 month lease, we tried to negotiate, he wouldn't budge and so we moved out. The place is still empty while weve moved to a nice place in the same area and paying AED70,000 a year less.

We've just received a phone call from the Dubai Municipality telling us that the landlord's agent (Rocky Real Estate) is taking us to Court - tomorrow. They want us to pay two months rent for not giving notice. We did give notice, two months prior to expiry we wrote to Rocky saying "We want to renew but not at the current rent", they wouldn't drop the rent so we moved out . Rocky is the same rental agency that sent repairman 18 times to fix the air-con in the house.

There's been no warning other than this morning's phone call so there's no time for us to prepare (of course) and all Court proceedings in Dubai are in Arabic so we have to find an Arabic lawyer to appear in Court tomorrow.

This is how its done here, the consumer has no rights.

Renting in Dubai

The house hunt continues for another week and I've come to the conclusion that the rental market in Dubai is completely out of control. Rents here have skyrocketed in the past 12 months and affordable housing is now a thing of the past unless you want to move out to International City next to the sewerage ponds.

There is a major difference between renting a property in Dubai and renting anywhere else. In Dubai you will be asked to pay the entire year's rent in advance in one cheque + 5% commission for the agent + 5% bond. If you're lucky you may get a landlord who'll accept 2 cheques but there are now very few landlords who do. While many companies here have housing loan arrangements for their management/professional staff who then make repayments from their salary, for most people in Dubai rent has become their major salary expense. We saw a lovely house on Wednesday night at Al Warqa which was really good value (by Dubai standards) at AED205,000 = $59,842pa or $1,150.80 per week. We told the agent on the spot that we'd take it, she rang the landlord who agreed and the agent said she would draw up the contract. The next day the agent rang to say that someone else had just turned up with 205,000 in cash and the landlord has rented the place to them instead. I know a couple in Dubai who are paying AED140,000 ($786 per week)for a one bedder and that's a good price, while a two bedder can be as much as AED190,000 ($1,066 per week) and 3 bedroom houses start at AED200,000 with the average house rental around AED340,000($1,900 per week) plus. As a comparison a brand new 4 bed, 4 bathroom house in Campbells Bay, Auckland with 2 lounges and a deck with seaviews rents for NZD900 per week or AED 134,000pa. While a 4 bedroom house with a full tennis court and a pool in Gladesville, Sydney rents for AUD 1,200pw or AED213,000pa.

Sharing a flat/house as we would do in Aus or NZ can be done here, though its illegal unless you are a 'family'. There has been a noticeable hardening of the Authority's attitude to single Westerners sharing places whether a couple, mixed house or girls/boys only. Unmarried couples living together are well advised to stay 'under the radar' as people (and its usually the woman) have been deported from the UAE if a complaint is made, and don't even think about having a baby here if you are unmarried! A recent interesting situation arose for a couple from the UK who've never married but have a couple of children. The man has been offered a job here which he can't accept unless they are a married couple. They've gone to the Registry office and got married but now a problem has arisen because, of course the dates on the childrens' birth certificates show that the kids were born before the parents married. Haven't heard how it turned out.