Mario Volpi: Dubai landlord living overseas needs to evict tenant who hasn’t paid rent for six months

The US-based landlord should evict tenant who has not paid the rent and take them to the rental committee to recover more than six months' worth of rent.

The first step to evicting a tenant in Dubai is to file a formal 30 days' notice to pay rent or be evicted. Antonie Robertson / The National

I am a landlord and have an apartment that is rented out through a management agency. I live in the United States and do not live in Dubai myself. My tenant has not paid rent for more than six months now. He has been giving us false promises and we have been trying to work with him, but this has taken too long and we are at the end of our patience. The tenant claims he cannot pay the rent because some of his clients are not paying him. While I try to be understanding, the tenant refuses to pay even a portion of the rent or even the AC utility bills, which according to the rental agreement are the tenant's responsibility. What are my options here and will we ever be able to recover the rent? We asked the management company to start the eviction process, but how can we recover the outstanding rent? Can the tenant also be made to pay for any legal expenses that we accrue because of this or any late fees? DC, United States

I can see that you are trying everything to recover the rent, but to speed up the process I suggest you contact the tenant again to serve him a notice requesting the rent be paid within 30 days. If after this time has elapsed he has not fulfilled his financial obligation, you can then file a case at the rental dispute settlement committee. This will cost 3.5 per cent of the annual rent. The dispute committee is a vehicle that will enable you to evict the tenant because of non-payment of rent and within the judgment will be a formula to recover the outstanding rent. The tenant’s liability to pay you the owed back rent will not disappear just because of an eventual eviction. Court costs and expenses are normally awarded to the winning party. Your management company should be able to explain the procedure and aid in this process.

I have a question related to service charge fees in Dubai. I am a landlord of a studio and apparently the management company is billing the service charges at Dh18.53 per square foot. This has been Rera-approved for February 2016 to February 2017. Is there any department I can contact or a way to complain about this. And would it be worth it to do so? BK, Dubai

As you know, Rera now approves all service charges. It does this to maintain a level of fairness and professionalism with references to Owners Associations (OA). I agree that on the face of it, Dh18.53 per sq ft appears to be on the high side for your area. My advice would be to initially speak directly with the OA or management company requesting an explanation. My guess is that they could be factoring in extra monies to build up a reserve/sinking fund for future expenditure. The other point to mention is that if the district cooling is included, the service charge is often much higher than the standard amount, so that could push up to this quoted level. Please check with the OA for verification. If you are still not satisfied with the answers, you always have the option to complain to Rera. I obviously cannot guarantee any outcome, given that it has approved the service charge budget.

Mario Volpi is the chief sales officer for Kensington Exclusive Properties and has worked in the property industry for the past 32 years in London and Dubai. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and they do not reflect in any way those of the institutions to which he is affiliated. It does not constitute legal advice and is provided for information only. Please send any questions to [e-mail]

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