DM deadline: Major blow to Dubai migrants

Dubai, Sep 22: In a major blow to thousands of tenants in Dubai, including Indians, the Dubai Municipality(DM) has announced a 30-day deadline with effect from Sep 21, 2008 for residents sharing villas to vacate them.
"The landlords must ensure that only one family lives in their villas. If they failed to comply with the new rules within the deadline, the municipality would slap fines upto Dirham 50,000 on them," said a top Dubai official.

The civic body had already said it would not take the responsibility of making the landlords refund the rents collected in advance. According to a tenant Dubai allows companies to hire people without any guarantee of accommodation which have given rise to the problem. The deadline which was announced on Sunday, Sep 21 is all set to put many tenants in deep trouble. ''There cannot be any bachelors, labourers or more than one family in the villas,'' the official was quoted by the Khaleej Times.

Huge rents, road taxes, skyrocketing cost of living have all hit the expatriates hard. "I was sharing a villa in Rashidia, in Dubai. After I was thrown out I now live in Ras al Khaimah and commute to work in Dubai travelling at least 200 kms daily, which is a strain on finance and health,'' Prem, who works in an office in Dubai told sources.

The deadline announced by the municipality has shocked both landlords and tenants. While landlords said that they needed time to evict tenants, the latter requested the civic body to extend the deadline. Many residents said the embassies should take up the matter with the government.

UNI