Whether you are an investor or tenant, falling into a real estate scam is an unfortunate event that we can avoid. It’s reported that a real-estate company rented many properties at a high price from landlords with multiple or four cheques then subleased them at a lower price with one upfront payment. Then the company closed and the CEO ran away while landlords and tenants wondered how to secure their rights.
In this case, tenants are in the weakest position because they do not have Ejari so inevitably they have to vacate the properties. Practically, it is the tenant’s responsibility to issue cheques under the name of the landlord. At the same time, landlords have to incur a loss of at least a one-month rental (to serve the notice period) along with the legal fees — not to mention the stress and wasted time.
If you are a landlord, you need to follow these steps upon getting a bounced rental cheque:
Remember, you cannot add custom terms and conditions that override any law e.g., immediate eviction in case of bounced cheque.
Dubai Land Department did a great job by dedicating a full department for the rental issues a.k.a RDC (Renal Dispute Center) that has set clear rules such as “Subleasing requires a written consent of the owner”, and as a part of the continuous improvement, the law could be amended to remove the unnecessary 30-day notice period in case the tenant is not reachable, or it is proven that the tenant runs away.
Since one of our team members was a victim of this incident, we were able to gather over 35 properties rented by the company worth over AED 15.6M:
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