Landlord-agent dispute puts tenants in a bind
Yesterday one of my office colleague told me that he has received a notice from the Court to vacate the house with a weeks notice. He was very upset with the situation of having to vacate the house within such a short notice.
I spoke to GT and brought this matter to media so that we all should be aware of such kind of surprise notice specially if your are renting a house through a Real Estate broker. I think, we should also better keep our bags ready :-(
This is the 3rd incident of similar kind I am hearing in 1 year since my arrival in Qatar.
Sarmad Qazi has this report in the Gulf-times:
HUNDREDS of people living in a six-building residential complex in the Bin Mahmoud area have become the latest victims of the landlord-agent row where the tenants have now just a day left to vacate their apartments or face forced eviction.
Several tenants told Gulf Times yesterday that they received the “surprise of a lifetime” on Thursday (January 29) when they found a court notice pasted on their doors, asking them to leave the premises within seven days.
The residents said the notice triggered panic across the complex, with people not knowing how to find an alternative accommodation at such a short notice.
There are over 280 units in the six buildings housing hundreds of people from various countries.
The eviction notice from the court asked the real estate company to clear all the dues (to the landlord) and leave the premises within a week of receiving (seeing) the notice.
Hoping to hear otherwise, tenants, most of them families, called the agent’s office only to be told that they were trying to sort it out but nothing had happened until yesterday.
All the tenants Gulf Times spoke to said they did not know why they should be penalised for no fault of theirs.
“I signed a one-year contract with the agent just on December 23 and moved in on January 1 after paying a month’s rent as security deposit and 12 post-dated cheques. And I’m receiving a notice to leave on January 29,” an anguished newcomer to Doha from Dubai told Gulf Times.
“This type of thing is rarely heard in Dubai. My family was about to join me but now everything has been messed up,” the young Asian executive said.
Another tenant, an Arab, said: “My family moved here some 15 months ago and in October, I renewed the contract for another year (October 2009). Two months ago (in December) we received a notice saying that the owner was taking the building back and we must vacate.”
He said the agent had assured him that there was a court case pending but that everything would be taken care of. “And then suddenly came in this urgent notice.”
The general manager of the agent said : “I joined this company only nine months ago and don’t know what happened before that date. We directly deal with only 92 apartments, but I have more than 158 tenants who are not paying their monthly rents.”
“The sheikh (landlord) went to the court for non-payment of rents, maintenance and other reasons,” he added.
However, tenants said they could not hear anything useful from the agent until yesterday though he kept on telling them that he was trying to get an extension.
“We have now just a day left. Though we have been frantically searching for a suitable accommodation nothing has been found so far. It is such a short notice,” they all said.
The tenants are also worried about the fate of their security deposit and the post-dated cheques. The agent has told the tenants that their settlement would take time. The semi-furnished and fully furnished flats were leased out on monthly rents of QR7,500 and above.
Some of the tenants said the landlord has hinted that he was ready to deal with them directly but was asking for a higher rent.
Source: Gulf-times
