Company denies hiking air con charges at Pearl

PEARL QATAR: An artist's impression of the waterside development.

Qatar Cool, a company which provides chilled water for air conditioning, has denied claims it has hiked charges by nearly 200 percent at The Pearl, a $14bn seaside project in Doha.

Angry investors have accused Qatar Cool, which is 51 percent owned by UDC (United Development Company), master developer of The Pearl, of ramping up its air conditioning charges at the waterside mega-development.

But in a statement posted on its website, Qatar Cool denied it had put up charges and said it currently only enters into contracts with sub-developers.

"Qatar Cool enters into contracts with the developers then, usually, the developer divides the cost of the one-time payments, or part thereof, to the unit owners or includes them in the price of the individual units as per the Individual Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) between developer and unit owners," the company said in a statement.

"The...fees have always been the same and have not been modified by Qatar Cool since they were established," the company added.

Now Pearl sub-developer First Qatar is passing on air conditioning connection fees to investors, some of whom face a bill increase of QR50,000 ($13,729) a year to QR146,000.

"It seems to be a typical case of "it is not my fault" as Qatar Cool are blaming the developers for passing on the fees to the investors and the developers are blaming Qatar Cool," one investor who did not wish to be named, told Arabian Business.

First Qatar is also threatening investors with an electricity connection fee charge of QR20,000.

The 4m sq m island mega-project The Pearl-Qatar in Doha will provide around 15,000 homes when it is complete in 2011 and will also allow foreigners freehold ownership rights.

First Qatar was unavailable for comment.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Pear Qatar
Posted by thefadster on Sunday 2 August 2009 at 18:13 UAE time


I think this is totally unacceptable, what law firms do you recommend in Qater?, I have bought a property in First Qatar and they have delayed delivery by one year and now we have to pay an additional 150,000 QR, I think it is only fair that we where told about this cost from the begining, we should also be compensated for the late delivery

The Death of The Pearl
Posted by Unfortunate Pearl Owner, Doha, Qatar on Friday 31 July 2009 at 08:17 UAE time


I have one question to UDC, other developers and Qatar Cool.

Who can make or break your project?

The answer is simple… your existing home owners, also better known as your CUSTOMER.

Does anyone know of any business in the world that is a success without customers? Who are the most valuable asset to any organization... their existing customers!
We are the ones that bring you new ones, free of charge!! We are also the ones that tell everyone we know, who will tell everyone they know, who will tell everyone they know.. etc etc NOT to ever be part of your organization.
Do people not understand the power of the Customer? They will literally make any organization a HUGE success or a MASSIVE failure.

UDC, Qatar Cool and all other developers, do you not realize that you are rapidly causing the death of your own project due to abusing your current home owners?
People already know world wide what you have done and it’s only been 2 weeks since your customers started telling them. You have created your own worst enemy by taking advantage of your biggest asset, us, your CUSTOMER.

I’ll leave you with these very wise words: “Look after your Customers and they will look after you”

WAKE UP
Posted by Asad Hafiz, Dubai on Wednesday 29 July 2009 at 12:01 UAE time


Why doesn't anyone learn from Dubai... and see how the developers jammed the investors and I would say especially the individual owners of the property the SAME is going to happen in Qatar.

I sincerely advise people kindly invest in your home countries where at least AT LEAST there are some laws and developers, master developers, agents, sub developers, contractors, planners can't screw you.. Especially since you have the MONEY that they are all after !!!

Call for the regulators
Posted by Call for regulators on Wednesday 29 July 2009 at 12:00 UAE time


Qatar, through the Qatar Financial Centre, is making great strides in ensuring that it is one of the most transparent locations for banking and finance in the Middle East.

While Qatar is making progress in the banking sector, I'm afraid it is losing out in the real estate sector. To have developers come back and attempt to charge for capital connection charges valued at hundreds of thousands of Riyals when you have already paid them millions for the apartment is simply extortion.

This industry needs to be regulated by the government to protect home owners from these underhanded schemes. Failure to act now while the industry in Qatar is still in its infancy will not only damage the reputation of the industry, but will ensure that foreign investors take their money elsewhere. At the moment the investors have no-where to turn, the developers all seem to want to charge these additional fees to the home owners and in the end no-one wins. The developer will never sell another property, other projects in Qatar will suffer and the poor home owner is left out of pocket telling all who will listen to never buy here with no one to turn to for assistance.

Obviously self regulation of the industry will not work and while these developers know that the home owners have no-one within the government to turn to for protection, and little recourse outside of expensive legal action, they will continue to exploit these people and damage the reputation of the industry.

I should be proud of this investment, but I too am starting to feel embarrassed that I was ever associated with it.

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