I rent a one-bedroom apartment in Dubai. The building I live in has not been cleaned for the past few months and the management claims that a new cleaning provider has just been hired.
The building hallway is littered with cockroaches, which have also made their way into the apartment. Although the building management has now called in a pest control company, I continue to see cockroaches inside the apartment.
Also, a window pane in my apartment cracked while I was at work. I informed the maintenance team who agreed to replace the window glass pane. However, it has been 10 months since I lodged this complaint and the window is yet to be fixed. The maintenance team claims that the window pane has not been delivered because the office has not paid the glass delivery company. How can I deal with this situation? YS, Dubai
Given how you speak about the management of the building, I assume your landlord is the developer or a company, rather than an individual. That said, you should state your concerns directly to your landlord. The building management can help but only to a certain degree.
You obviously need to get to the bottom of the problems. So, try to speak to other residents in order to see if they too have had similar issues. If you speak collectively, it will have a bigger impact.
If these maintenance issues are taking too long, you can always look to replace the window pane yourself and reclaim the expense from the landlord via the next rental payments.
Generally speaking, if you are encountering too many issues and this is stopping you from having quiet enjoyment of the rental property, you will have every right to question the validity of the contract. Unless the landlord eradicates or deals with the issues in a timely manner, you will have no alternative but to vacate the apartment.
My rent contract ended and I have been trying to contact the landlord for three months, but the apartment is owned by a company and managed by an agent who is not answering calls, emails, or WhatsApp messages. I have notified the agent, facility management and the company that I don't want to renew the contract.
Facility management did an inspection of the flat and I gave them the keys. However, I don't have any official notification that they have accepted the end of the contract. Can you advise me on what I should do? EG, Dubai
It is extremely odd that despite trying for three months, nobody has replied to you. The good news is that you have proof via email and WhatsApp that you tried to notify them of your intentions not to renew. Legally, a tenant doesn’t actually have to give three months' notice to the landlord for non-renewal but it is always good practice as landlord/tenant relations need to be kept on a good footing.
As you can clearly demonstrate your actions of trying to contact them, there is nothing for you to worry about even though you don’t have final communications from anyone. Your contract is finished and that is the end of it.
If you are encountering too many issues and this is stopping you from having quiet enjoyment of the rental property, you will have every right to question the validity of the contract
Presumably, you handed back the property to facility management in exactly the same condition as it was given and closed all your utility accounts, so owe nothing.
My only concern would be your deposit. If you want it back, keep trying to contact the agent.
Mario Volpi is the sales and leasing manager at Engel & Volkers. He has worked in the property sector for more than 35 years in London and Dubai. The opinions expressed do not constitute legal advice and are provided for information only. Please send any questions to mario.volpi@engelvoelkers.com
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Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
