Bad practice needs to be checked

Comment To be unable to make mortgage payments during a financial crisis should not be considered a crime.

To be unable to make mortgage payments during a financial crisis should not be considered a crime. Yet this is the situation that pushed Preetha Rayan and Aldrick D'Souza to flee Dubai for India last year. Buying a home is the largest purchase in most people's lives, so it should not be taken lightly. The couple should have read the paperwork on their loan documents more closely and possibly waited until they had more money saved before signing on the dotted line.

But the fact that they were required to sign undated cheques has taken a bad situation and made it disastrous. Because of their legal situation, these two ambitious young people are unlikely to visit or work in the UAE again. It is small situations such as these that add up to large, systemic problems that prevent the economy from recovering. Using post-dated or undated cheques as a guarantee for future payments has had ramifications across the economy and landed dozens of businessmen in prison.

The government has rightly set up a committee to look into how to deal with the problem, but clearly the companies that require them from customers, such as Tamweel, need to stop using them as a threat against non-fraudulent debtors. The reasons are simple: If someone flees, no one gets paid and people will be afraid to buy things in the future if they feel they are unfairly risking their freedom.

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