DUBAI // Five years after a fire tore through Tamweel Tower, residents have been given a moving date.
Maintenance checks to prepare the building for their return began on Monday with families expected to move back in as of July 1.
The key to the building along with control over the tower have been handed over to the owner’s association, a group of flat-owners who manage the building and handle issues from security to maintenance.
A moving schedule for the 160 families will be drawn up by the association to avoid overloading the building’s infrastructure, they said.
The building’s new cladding has been approved by Civil Defence and Dubai Municipality has issued the two certificates needed for the handover but after a five year wait residents are less than enthused to return to Tamweel Tower.
“This has taken a lot of time and energy. We have got the clearance from Civil Defence and the building completion certificate from Dubai Municipality. It could take 10 days for the facilities management company to check all the systems are working like fresh water, air circulation and then people will start moving in,” said Masoud Nayebi, head of the owner’s association board.
“People have lost a lot of money in rents that had to be paid for apartments they are staying in. I don’t have excitement about moving in, I just hope this can be finished soon,” he said.
Police investigations found the November 18, 2012 blaze in the Jumeirah Lakes Tower high-rise was caused by a discarded cigarette which ignited waste material. The fire was fuelled by the 160-storey tower’s aluminium cladding which had a highly flammable thermo-plastic core.
The building was declared uninhabitable soon after the fire and the five-year time delay has made residents – most of which have been living in rented apartments since - weary.
“We struggled for five years and it’s a big achievement for residents that the owner’s association has got back possession of the building,” said Amit Suri, whose 30th-floor apartment was damaged by the fire.
Residents were allowed into their flats from February this year to inspect repair work.
Delays were exacerbated by uncertainty about whether the owners’ association or insurance company could handle contracts for repair work. The owners’ group also had to register with the real estate authority and reconstruction clearances were required from the municipality and civil defence. A civil defence rule mandated that all old cladding panels be removed and not just portions ruined by the blaze.
“It’s finally coming to an end after a glaringly slow pace,” said Arif Halela, an apartment owner.
“It has been an eye-opening experience because as owners we had to fend for ourselves. There was no one to protect our rights or look out for the investor. It was individuals in the association that intervened and found solutions. But now we finally have a building that meets all the standards.”
Tamweel was the first of numerous high-rise fires and resulted in the banning of non-fire rated aluminium cladding in new buildings.
Repair work had to meet tougher safety regulations as part of the amended UAE Fire and Life Safety Code which specifies the installation of exterior cladding and details the responsibilities of consultants, contractors and manufacturers.
“Restoration work on Tamweel is hopefully the start for high-rises to be safer in the future,” said owner Mazen Iskandarani who will soon start moving furniture back into his flat that was unaffected by the fire.
As most residents have had to pay rent for flats they moved in to and mortgage their Tamweel apartments for the past five years, they have appealed to authorities for a waiver of community and chiller fees.
“Financially this has been very difficult. It would help so many families if fees for services we have not used can be dropped. For now we are just focussed on going back home,” flat-owner Anwar Hussein said.
