Property court decision could "prompt flurry" of cases

There's been a lot of chatter about a decision early this week at the Dubai Property Court that ordered a developer, Mizin, to pay Dh7.5m (US$2m) back to a buyer after it failed to register the transaction with the Dubai Land Department within the required 60 days.

Chris Dommett, property observer extraordinaire over at John Charcol, said in an e-mail to me earlier that "it will prompt a flurry of registrations from developers who so far have been slow to comply with the rules".

It could also incentivise people who bought off plan some time ago to check if the property they have bought has been registered with a view to also claiming their money back if it is not registered. I think we should expect plenty more litigation on this issue and others relating to property and sales and purchase contracts.

A Mizin spokeswoman told me that the company wouldn't comment because it is appealing the decision.

Legal experts say the decision was a Court of First Instance judgment, which is not final. You need a Court of Cassation judgment and since the courts here are not bound by precedent, another judge could still come up with a totally different decision.

It is up for debate what effect this will have? Any lawyers out there want to pitch in?