Thursday, February 15, 2007

No meeting tonight

It was agreed at the last tenants meeting that the group should meet again today, Thursday 15th February, to discuss progress.

At present there is no progress to report. Emaar's PR bods have been busy telling the newspapers that they are offering concessions and sweeteners, but as anyone who has seen the newspapers will realise, they are offering nothing more than was originally suggested and nothing that eases the plight of the affected tenants.

We still hope that the letters to prominent and influential local figures will yield results. But as yet, there appears to be no change in Emaar's position that it wants to sell all the affected apartments by the end of February at current market prices.

It appears too that there are also plans to sell off other Emaar leased properties in the Lakes in a similar fashion once the Greens tenants' homes have been dispatched. So this story may well have implications for far more people than it currently appears to affect.

We will post more news when available.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

You might discuss this again, and I will accept any comment but I really feel that here is no law to stop EMAAR from selling our apartments and at any time they want. Such a law to prevent the sale of apartment would be absurd in the UAE. We might even argue that EMAAR was kind enough to give us a 2 weeks notice. What i am saying is that we need to focus on legal issue regarding the transfer of our contract. Today, we are victims of an exceptional situation and will be imposed of a 50-60% rent increase while our honorable Dubai Ruler has promised us 7%. I believe we need to adress our concern more about this rather the sale of our apartments. In an exceptional situation, ask for exception to the ruler. We might get exceptional conditions with our new "landlord" for a period of at least one year. What do you think?

Al Ghozlan 4 Tenant

Anonymous said...

I agree. There is no law to stop EMAAR or anybody else for selling their property. It is however not decent to do it like they are doing it; two weeks deadline, manipulating the press, inventing "good" oportunities for financing, 350 families evicted, etc.

Putting more focus to investigate how to prevent rent increase looks like a good idea.

Al Ghozlan Tenant

Anonymous said...

Hi All, I somehow think this is all getting too emotional and we need to focus on the facts as this will be our only hope.
1.) Emaars decision is legal and the Law protects the tenant even if the Apartment is sold. The fact is that a new landlord will for sure do his best to kick us out from the Apartment for the simple reason that the rent is below Market. The question is (Is there a way to prevent this??) if anyone knows a legal way to protect us from this then have it published here. I would suggest that one way is that Emaar extends all our contracts for at least another 1 to 2 Year before they sell. this will force any buyer to stick to the contract conditions for the additional time period. ((A new owner has to honor the existing contract, he has no chance with the Rent committee.
2.) For the once who want to buy, all those doubts about the Market change are valid, so the only way to be safe is that we get a good rate (better than Market) i.e. Emaar needs to dicount at least another 10% to make it a possibly safe investment.

Anonymous said...

i agree with you, the idea of renewing our contracts this week for 1 year seems the best way. The question is: will EMAAR accept?

Anonymous said...

We can still have a meeting...

Even if there is no progress to report, we can still meet to discuss what we can do next, we can all gather together and show the media that we don’t see this opportunity as a good one, we can force them to put in their paper the real number of affected tenants.. if we don’t do anything this weekend it might be too late to do something next week.. please consider the below suggestions:

1) Everyone can fax a letter to Emaar and the Ruler’s office asking them to reconsider their decision or to extend the tenancy contract till 2008.
2) If we meet all together at Zabeel park we can walk around the neighborhood of that area, where our voices can be heard.
3) We can send an invitation to every affected tenants to participate more on this website, am sure allot of people are reading this but only few are taking sometime to add a comment.
4) We can publish a survey on this website and ask people to fill it out, then we can send the results to Emaar and the Ruler’s office, this survey can contain questions as:
1. Can you afford to buy?
2. Can you afford the current rents in the market?
3. Would you consider leaving Dubai after Emaar sells your apartment?

And many other questions that can reflect the consequences of Emaar decision.

We have to meet as soon as possible, people are starting to loose hope, if we cant unite now, we will not be able to bring enough people when we really need to.

Let’s meet this weekend in Zabeel Park...

Anonymous said...

You should also write letters to Gulf News, Emirates Today, 7days

Anonymous said...

i agree with you, the idea of renewing our contracts this week for 1 year seems the best way. how we can voice this to news or those who are concerned.
Algozlan 3 worried tenant.

Anonymous said...

Any new news?what we can do next?Putting more focus to investigate how to prevent rent increase looks like a good idea.

Anonymous said...

Please somebody say what should we do next? hope for a answer from somebody ? because emaar answered unofficially that they will discount 3% .. nothing more...
so 2 weeks will pas (1 passed) and the houses will be sold..
please advice

Anonymous said...

what should be our next move? was the letter finally sent to His Highness Sheikh Mohammad or not?? If so, was there any reply??
Don't you think drawing this case to international media is helpfull?? particularly when Dubai One TV is promoting EMMAR every morning and night???!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Dear Friends,

I am about to bring very personal ideas about the whole situation and you are free to disagree with me:

- Regarding the purchase of my apartment:

No way. Even if i had all the cash in my bank account i would not do it right now:

First of all, that offer is ridiculous, EMAAR knows very well that the market is overevaluated and doesn't make any gift to us.
I would even say they are mocking us. Even with a 10 % discount, i will never buy.
Secondly, I personally believe 2007-2008 will be year of oversupply.
Finally, the stability of the region is very questionable at the moment. On the other side of the Atlantic, we have one Waco who thinks he can invade a country whenever he wants, and on the other side of the gulf, another Waco, who most probably at the time i am typing this, is
pointing his missiles at us because we have promised to ally with the first Waco in question. Funnily enough, we have received that letter from EMAAR only 3 days after Iran warned UAE not to ally with US.
Believe me, investors are holding their breath right now...

- regarding telling the international press, why not? as long as we can protect other foreign investors from the instability that is offering Dubai at the moment, we will only do our duty.

- regarding moving out because we will be cheated about the new rent price, i personally have no problem to move to a cheaper place as i have no family with me here, but i do feel bad for those who have kids and will have to start a new life with a new school, etc...
so yes i wanna be solidaire with you and i'll bring my support to request one more time the generosity of Sheikh Maktoum, who is still our last hope to guarantee that Dubai is a stable and regulated place to invest. I won't leave this country because i have invested too much and
only now after 2 years of hard work i finally see the result of this. So count on me for my help. I might not be able to make it to Zabeel Park tomorrow, but if you have another petition to sign, count on me.

Al Ghozlan 4 tenant

Anonymous said...

Dear All,

Let me start by saying that i really appreciate everything you're doing so far, and am sure many other tenants share the same appreciation i have.

I know that you were not obliged to do any single thing of what you did, you could have just carried the matter on a personal approach.. but since you already took the lead am afraid to tell you that you have no right to give up, you have no right to feel frustrated, people are counting on you, if you feel that you need a fresh blood to be pumped into your veins, am more than welling to do so, am welling to volunteer and do what ever it takes, i live in al alka3 in a one bedroom apartment with my wife and i don't want to be kicked out of it...

Again thank you very much for what you're doing, I wish i had the right words to express my gratitude, i wish i can do anything to keep you motivated...

During the last week, i have met and spoken with at least five neighbors in my building for the first time since i first moved in almost two years ago, it made me feel that am living in a real neighborhood, where everyone knows each other, and kids can play together, it made me realize more how much i don't want to leave my home...

We can still meet this weekend, Friday or Saturday... we have to keep in touch with all tenants... before everyone loose their hope...

Please keep in your mind that Emaar is planning to sell their properties at the lakes and the only reason they are not doing so at this time is because they have doubts that the selling of the greens might not succeed, in other words, we still have a chance to stop this thing...

Thanks again for everything,

Hope to see you soon,

Al Alka3 Dreamer

Anonymous said...

You are absolutely right the main issue is not for those who want to buy but for those who want to continue rent because THEY CANNOT afford to rent at market prices.

Unfortunately the papers are not reporting this view but are reporting whichever opinion EMAAR is giving them

The letters written to both the Dewan and to EMAAR management is requesting what you have stated (an extension of our contracts by an additional 3 years so that the new landlords are obliged to honour it and prefrential rates for those who want to buy.

Anonymous said...

Dear ALL,

TO CLARIFY:

Ofcourse EMAAR are within their right to sell and legally we have no grounds to object (nor do we want them) what we are doing is appealing on SYMPATHETIC GROUNDS.

7days, Emirates Today, and Gulf news were contacted. NONE printed the full picture. Gulf news refused upfront, Emirates Today is printing EMAAR's views, 7days is a little to our side but not completely.

Not sure how international press will help - we dont want to upset people. All we are saying is that we are hard working people trying to live reasonably and WILL NOT be able to afford a rent increase. The issue of sale price only applies to a minority who can afforded. Unfortunately none of the papers are discussing the concerns of those who CANNOT BUY - clearly they dont want to upset EMAAR.

Anonymous said...

PLEASE NOTE LETTERS TO DEWAN AND TO EMAAR MANAGEMENT WERE SENT AS WE DISCUSSED - NO RESPONSE AS YET

secretdubai said...

I hate to say this, but sadly for Greens tenants Emaars is well within its rights.

On the bright side, there is likely to be such a glut of apartments coming onto the market over the next year or so that rents will start to soften. In the medium to longer term, landlords will struggle to rent a small one-bedroom for much more than Dh60,000-Dh80,000. I've seen some of the one-bedrooms at the Greens - they're not much bigger than studios.

On the downside, a lot of people will be buying these apartments to live in. That means that tenants that can't or won't buy need to face the very difficult prospect of eviction at the end of their lease.

As for the international press - I doubt they would care. Unless there are actually scores of expat families with young kids sleeping out in the streets, and photographs to prove it, it just won't be a story for them.

The irony is that there are people in other areas (eg The Gardens) that would kill to buy their apartments, but they're not likely to ever be for sale.

Anonymous said...

This is a very interesting site which I found on the Internet about the issue with Emaar in Dubai

http://dxbrent.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

TOGETHER WE STAND...
DIVIDED WE FALL...

Dear neighbors.. we have only one more week before our apartments get sold on the open market... we have to do something very quickly, anything, believe me, people in Dubai have no clue about our situation, whenever i talk to anyone about it they either tell me that this is the first time they heard this story or they tell me that they thought the offer from EMAAR is irresistible.

It’s true we have no legal ground, but that doesn’t mean that we should not do anything. Even if we could not change Emaar’s decision we still have to protect ourselves after the selling. Does anyone know if the new landlord has the right to through you out of the apartment before the end of your tenancy contract? if he doesn’t have the right? Does anyone know how we should respond if (or when) the new landlord tries to through us out? are we going to be officially informed when the selling is done? do we get to meet the new landlord to know what are his/her intensions?

Lets meet as soon as possible...

Anonymous said...

Its all your fault guys. How could you trust those people. There is now law, there is no respect to your money, its just a place full of greedy bas****s. This is the heaven you tried to convince people of. Deal with the problems you created by yourself. I wish you bad luck. Dubai is sh*t.

Anonymous said...

Good morning everybody..

One week left to go.. are you going to buy? did you get your mortgage from AMLAK? have you start looking for a new apartment? a new school for your kids? a new job to afford the rent increase? did you buy your tickects back to your home?

Anonymous said...

Dear Secret dubai - thank you for your support (not!). I wonder if you are one of the tenants facing this issue - it seems to me you are not.

We stated many times that we know EMAAR is within their legal rights and that we are appealing to them on sympathetic grounds!!

You say people in the gardens would kill to buy their apartments: you are insinuating that we are sneering at an excellent opportunity - clearly you havent looked at the terms that AMLAK is offering - we would have to pay 40% more than in rent for interest and many people have to come up with 300K deposit - maybe you are one of the rich landlords who can afford to do so or even a well paid EMAAR executive - but the vast majority cannot come up with this deposit over and above the interest

Anonymous said...

"U.S. is ready to mount Iran attack by spring"- Gulf News /Feb, 18th.

If the above news comes true, whoever buys these property will remain its sole owner for the rest of his life !!!
We will see the consequences of this news over Dubai and regional real estate markets in comming weeks.

Anonymous said...

Good news, people:

This is one of the feedback I received from a landlord giving his voice to 7 Days website:

"Getting around the rent cap is not that easy. They have current contracts in place. So if the new owner chooses to keep them as renters, they have to follow the contract already in place. when we bought a house it had renters in it. We inherited the contract and had to abide by all the rules. If we wanted to kick them out, we had to prove we were moving into the house and had to stay there for 1 year."

Does that mean we individually have a chance to protect our rent price to the the rent committee, assuming the landlord does not want to move in the appartment neither he wants to do renovation?
What would be the new landlord's reason to do renovations in the apartment i rent if the apartment is only 2 years old? Anyone knows?

Al Ghozlan 4 Tenant

Anonymous said...

To al Ghozlan 4 Tenant and to everyone else...

Its either we meet again and escalate this issue and force everyone to hear our voice.. or we have to set back like small fish inside a pool filled with sharks, its your choice.. Honestly I have no idea why we cannot meet? even if there is no update, we should meet..

Anonymous said...

Please if you are suggesting a meeting then arrange it and let everyone know - that would be great

Anonymous said...

have u seen the emirates news on dubai tv tonight?
Finally they announced residents of greens are not intersted to buy their appartemments.
I think it's a big progress. Finally,they heard one of our demands.lets have another meeting to discuss more about this issue .Time is passing by.

Anonymous said...

As news purported tonight, EMMAR seems to step back by our wallop. As you remember, they had declared to media that EMMAR has put apartments on sale due to receiving enormous requests by its tenants who have shown great interest to buy them.
Tonight, the news said that EMMAR received cold reflect from its tenants to buy the property!!!!
isn't this a great victory for us ????
thanks to you couragous tenants who respected yourself by your gathering in the meeting held in Feb 12th and voicing your right.
Please let's have a meeting.
Just keep this in your mind that with such unity, EMMAR will never be able to sell this proberty to any WISE buyer.

Anonymous said...

Am sending this message to those who have arranged the first meeting.. To those who have collected our signatures and attached them along with a letter we are still waiting to see.. Thanks for your efforts done so far, a genuine pure thank you... This is the best time to organize a meeting, the sooner the better, and before everyone starts to arrange his/ her own meeting, where they have to redo everything that you already did.. Please arrange for another meeting... ask for volunteers to participate.. To send flyers.. if we cant meet on EMAAR premises, we should meet in street no. 3 or any other public place.. Am welling to spend a night in a sleeping bag if that's what it takes.. Am sure One TV will be delighted to put this scene on the air...

Anonymous said...

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/02/17/10104916.html

Anonymous said...

Dubai: Scores of residents of the Greens township have refused the Emaar offer to buy their rented flats but worry their new landlords will hike up their rents or drive them out.

The tenants living in three blocks of the township say they are not interested in owning property despite the developer's offer to shave off three per cent of the price and waive the registration fee.

Most tenants say the price is also too high. A one-bedroom flat of about 760 square feet is being offered for Dh890,000.

One tenant said he is paying Dh60,000 rent for that flat.

"I am paying partly from my own pocket to reach this amount. My housing allowance has not kept pace with the rent hikes," he said, fearing that the new landlord will raise his rent or ask him to leave.

Another tenant said he will have to "start from scratch" because of the Emaar decision. "They have a right to sell, but they should think about the human impact," said the tenant who will have to uproot himself and his family and go to Abu Dhabi or Sharjah.

The tenants from Al Ghozlan three and four and Al Alka have put up a blog, http://homelesstenants.blogspot.com.

They have also appealed to the chairman of Emaar to give them some way out, but so far there has been no response. In a statement sent earlier Emaar said it might give the tenants more time to get their finances together.

An engineer said he is paying Dh5,000 as rent per month and if he takes a loan from Amlak, he will be paying Dh12,000 to Dh 13,000 per month to pay back the mortgage.

"In about 25 years the property will be mine, fine. But I am not interested. Who knows where I will be then," said Hassanain Hamdy.

Anonymous said...

DEAR ALL,

EMAAR FINALLY RESPONDS!

Please note that homelesstenants@yahoo.com have received an email from EMAAR requesting to meet with the organisers of the petition.

We have requested to meet with them on urgent basis to discuss our requirements as explained in the letter.

Although we do not yet know what is EMAAR's point of view on the issue, we feel that this is a starting point. The first thing we request clearly is an extension of the 2weeks deadline so that tenants are not surprised that their property is already sold.

THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO ATTENDED THE MEETING AND TO THOSE WHO SIGNED THE PETITION.

Clearly with no reaction from the tenants EMAAR would not even be aware of the issue.

Updates on EMAAR views will be posted on the site

Regards

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to everyone...
I believe we should meet all together before this meeting takes place with EMAAR...
Thank you again to the organizers, wish you all the strength in the whole world...
Cheers..

Anonymous said...

WOW , no more news ,why everybody stoped ??? We have to continue ...

 
contact us: homelesstenants[at]yahoo.com