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Residents denied tower entry in service charge row

by Hannah-Farah Abdulla on Aug 29, 2011

9 Comments

Access denied: cards allowing entry into car parks and buildings have been deactivated.

Furious tenants of a JBR tower have been locked out of their flats, for a second time, in a row over unpaid service fees.

Residents in Sadaf Towers have had their security cards deactivated, preventing access into the car park and their buildings, which they believe is down to landlords failing to cough up for maintenance of common areas of the building.

"It's ridiculous - people have to queue outside the car park because the security guards won't let them in," said one tenant to The National.

"They have put up a notice warning people who have not paid their service charges that they will lose access to the building.

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FEATURED COMMENT

I agree that service charges are a rip off. It's ridiculous. Developers cannot think to survive by ripping off people.

9 Comments

Readers' Comments

Beatrice (Sep 5, 2011) United Arab Emirates

service charge
I agree that service charges are a rip off. It's ridiculous. Developers cannot think to survive by ripping off people.

AD (Sep 5, 2011)
Dubai
United Arab Emirates

Get it right!
As an owner of a property in JBR I am quite honestly sick of the downgrading of our property values by inaccurate reports. There is NO lockout of tenants, all that has happened is the security systems have been activated which should have been done long ago. This is to make the property more safe and is in direct response to mine and many other Owners I know requests. I know for a fact that service charges or not any resident is allowed access. JBR is one of the most successful communities in Dubai and for the hundreds and thousands who visit and for the thousands who live there the majority will strongly agree.

britpak (Aug 31, 2011)
Dubai
United Arab Emirates

Service Charges
If DP are willing to charge DH250 for a small piece of plastic then this shows that ths Service Charges are a rip off. The landlords are right in every sense for not paying the extortionate rate of Service Charges. Landlords all over the UAE need to be transparant and should be held accountable for true cost of managing JBR.

Jbr landlord (Aug 30, 2011)

Please don't blame the landlords! Blame idama or whatever they are called this week.
I am a JBR landlord and I actually do care about my tenants - I have chased and chased the management company to send an invoice but they just ignore us landlords. I have given up chasing, so it seems have all the other landlords.

Dragan Markovic (Aug 29, 2011)
Dubai, JBR
Australia

Residents denied entry in service charge row
I think that showing how somethings are not fair. As a tenant we have to pay rent well in advance by one or two cheques and maintenance fees should not be the tenant's responsibility. If tenants pay everything plus have problem with maintenance fees and have to deal with that, something is wrong there. If it's between maintenance company and owner and it should be like that. Tenant should not be collection agent for Maintenance Company. Last year I experienced that in one building in Dubai Marina where I bean locked out of car park for nearly one month. Having a small baby, looking for parking on the street, knowing that I paid everything it was not a pleasant feeling. I called police and they were nice but not much help. Tenants be aware of this and may sympathy for people who have this problem. Unfortunately it is a not pleasant situation.

Robert (Aug 29, 2011)
Dubai

Only one real loser
The only people that really lose out here are the tenants. Locking people out of their homes doesn't solve anything: it simply creates stress for those caught between building management and landlords. Net result? Tenants leave, revenue source for landlord slashed and building slowly empties. This is a matter that should be settled between management and landlords, not those who stump up rent months ahead, only to be faced with being locked out through no fault of their own.

abdul hafeez sheikh (Aug 29, 2011)
islamabad
Pakistan

Residents denied tower entry in service charge row
The action seem to be too harsh and may affect the reputation of Dubai as investor friendly place . There should be some kind of tripartite law (owner , allotee of apartment and tenant)which will help to pay the building services charges by deducting these charges from the rent .This will decrease the suffering of those who are paying their rent regularly

abdul hafeez sheikh (Aug 29, 2011)
islamabad
Pakistan

AJ (Aug 29, 2011)
Dubai
United Arab Emirates

Re: Residents denied tower entry in service charge row
It is quite unfortunate it has reached this stage however this is something that is done when fees are not paid up. But at the same time this is quite directly proportional to service delivery. If there is no service delivery, fees still need to be paid. But then it depends on the capability of the Association Manager to manage the entire operations with the support of the law of course. There must be a mechanism where service charges payment should be cleared by the tenant if there is no response from the owner as he/she may be sitting internationally and just collecting the money. There must be a very stong support from the local regulations to tackle such issues

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