Electricity, water supplies will be cut in villa crackdown

VILLA VIOLATIONS: Families sharing villa accommodation in Dubai have until October 21 to move out.

Electricity and water services will be disconnected to villas in Dubai found to be breaking the new one villa, one family rule, it has been announced.

As the deadline for people sharing villas to move out draws near, the Dubai Municipality said it has already disconnected supplied to as many as 2,000 residents during the last three months.

And officials are in the process of submitting many more disconnection orders, UAE daily Khaleej Times reported on Thursday.

Omar Mohammed Abdul Rahman, the head of the Building Inspection Section, told the paper: "The violators are now facing harsh penalties, and we are in the process of submitting service disconnection orders to the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority.”

Last month, Municipality chiefs issued a final deadline to landlords and tenants of villas in the emirate stating that they needed to evict families sharing villas or face a fine of 50,000 dirhams.

The deadline ends on October 21 and officials stress this is a last chance for those who demanded more time to organise new accommodation.

Print | Email | Discuss this article |

READERS' COMMENTS

View all comments (13)

Have your say

How does this apply to servants?
Posted by Aust, London, UK on Tuesday 21 October 2008 at 18:13 UAE time

Surely, if applied fairly and without discrimination then no local or expat could have a maid or a driver unless they were provided with their own, independant, accommodation or, they came from the employer's direct family.

Does DM Really hear
Posted by M. Siddique, Chennai, India on Monday 20 October 2008 at 18:51 UAE time

Mr. Alan Lim and others, it is obvious that DM is in no mood to listen. Any one with common sense will agree that first an alternative has to be arranged and tough action need to be taken.

There will be not enough taxis or buses but there will be a restriction on sharing cars. There will not be alternative arrangement for Housing but they will clear Villas. There will not be tough action on Landlords or agents hiking rent but there will be a rent committee.

Can anybody confirm this... For example, the landlord will hike the rent from say AED 85K to AED300K knowing that the Tenant will go to the rent committee. But I believe the rent committee will "Direct" the landlord to allow the tenant to stay for a year and instruct the "Tenant" to vacate after 1 Year. See who benefits

Bachelors in Villa Crackdown
Posted by Alan Lim, Dubai, UAE on Monday 20 October 2008 at 17:30 UAE time


This must be the rule that is found in Dubai and not in other parts of the world. We are here as foreign expatriates to help build Dubai to what it is today and also her dreams in the future. To set a ridiculous regulation like this one really puts us off.

SHARING VILLAS
Posted by Young Professional, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Sunday 19 October 2008 at 09:40 UAE time

I think this is absolutely diabolical, Dubai certainly wants to have its cake and eat it !!! If this is the way they want to go then they should lower the rents its crazy the rental prices for apartments/villas are ridiculous, there has to be some give and take....you cannot allow these greedy landlords to charge such astronomical rent prices and expect people to be able to afford to live on their own !!! I agree that there needs to be some control i.e when you have a group of 30 indian or filipino labourers living in one villa then ok something needs to be done as this is a severe health risk but this should be taken up with their employers who should provide suitable accommodation for them, the rest of us should not be penalised. So the outcome, put the labourers in camps, lower the rents and leave ordinary people alone.

Electricity water supplies, Villa crackdown.
Posted by Elaine on Sunday 19 October 2008 at 07:04 UAE time

To the Municipality chiefs! Who benefits by this one family rule in villas, and will the one labourer per room be next?

Apathy of DM
Posted by Siddique, Chennai, India on Saturday 18 October 2008 at 15:32 UAE time


Well said Mr. Padmanabhan. In my previous comments on this I had wondered where Human Rights Commission is?? and had pleaded with Arabian Business.com to take up this issue with DM as the media also has a moral and social responsibility of taking up issues with authorities on matters concerning injustice, misuse of power etc.

In all this, one would be really surprised at the apathy of DM to the sufferings of the people.

Eviction from Villas
Posted by Padmanabhan, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Friday 17 October 2008 at 21:35 UAE time


It is really unfortunate DM is pursuing this villa eviction campaign in spite of various pleas from the victims and comments from number of people and surveys conducted by various agencies.

It is absolute dis respect for Human values and insensitivity to the people who really built this nation shining across the world as a good development model.

The least government should do is that they do not issue family visas unless the company employing people give a written undertaking that those people will be provided accommodation and the MOL makes sure such undertakings are fulfilled. Or else this is sheer exploitation of poverty and helplessness of the poor third world people and THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY DO HAVE THE RESPONSIBILITY to SHAME such acts of Human subjugation using the POWER of rule.

Electricity, water supplies will be cut in villa crackdown..
Posted by Patience on Friday 17 October 2008 at 17:20 UAE time


.......already disconnected supplied to as many as 2,000 residents during the last three months.... AND which location were these 2000 residents in? I would be seriously interested in their nationalities as well. I know of hundreds of Western expats sharing villas in Jumeirah and the like. I would really like to know if their electricity and water will or has been disconnected, or is it once again, only the lower and middle class from asian, african and other arab countries hat will suffer?

Old Dubai and Emirates was good enough..
Posted by kaptain, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Thursday 16 October 2008 at 21:16 UAE time


The Emirates is losing its classic touch altogether.

It was a nice time, when, people would gather around at street corners in the night and lead into the unending conversations sipping tea.
Now commercialisation has robbed all that sources of tranquility.

Evicting poor expats is easy, how about 'others'?

The expat community is hit hard, they should consider making a consortium of their groups and initiate something useful and investment oriented in their motherlands.
Saving here but till when? Are pennies worth saving?

rich donot understand what a middle class goes thru
Posted by Sam_Ali, sharjah, U.a.e on Thursday 16 October 2008 at 21:09 UAE time


I agree that the one family rule should be implemented but then make the villa rents go down how the hell can an low earnig person keep his family here
he cant stay in the country a married bachelor
I wish one day when they understand it hard to feel the pain of others and when they do it would be to late
The power of nature will always come to help the just

Define
Posted by Graham Plater, Munich, Germany on Thursday 16 October 2008 at 18:34 UAE time

The kind of villa Dubai Municipality is interested in just now looks a little different to the multi million ones on the Palm optimistically shown in your article... Those haven't been connected to the power and water network yet (and that will probably take a few years). Still - you never know what Dubai Municipality will dream up next.... ;-)

Villa Crackdown
Posted by Biji, Dubai, UAE on Thursday 16 October 2008 at 15:29 UAE time


Authorities should provide alternative homes to low and middle class families before starting such crackdowns. It is easy to throw people to road but it is humane to arrange them affordable homes

Kudos to Dubai Municipality
Posted by Siddique, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Thursday 16 October 2008 at 13:10 UAE time


When the World including UAE is grappling with problems with Financial Markets and losing billions of dollars, Dubai Municipality's one-point agenda of evicting hapless Expatriates from Villas. This will enhance the image of Dubai. Keep it up DM

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Security Code *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM