Tamweel Tower owners face another Christmas away from home

Repair work has still to begin on the 34-storey JLT tower after it was badly damaged by fire more than a year ago.

The damage caused by the fire that gutted the Tamweel Tower in Jumeirah Lakes Towers. Antonie Robertson / The National

DUBAI // Owners of apartments in Tamweel Tower, the building that was partly destroyed by a blaze more than a year ago, are facing another Christmas out of their homes.

The building, in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, was badly damaged after a fire on November 18 last year and rebuilding has yet to start.

Owners of flats in the 34-storey building have been forced to rent elsewhere while negotiations continued on the nature and scope of repair work.

Many of them have had to renew contracts at their temporary accommodation for a second year.

Hussain, a resident from Pakistan, has been living with his wife and two children in a flat in The Gardens since the fire.

Last month he had to renew his rental contract for another year after finding out that the tower was not yet ready.

Coupled with the loss of rental earnings from another flat Hussain was leasing out in Tamweel Tower, he has had to carry a heavy financial burden.

“The rental prices are going up in Dubai and we have already had to pay two years’ rent,” he said.

“I was renting out one other apartment in Tamweel Tower and the money from the rent was for my daily expenses.”

Hussain said the flat he was renting in The Gardens was about a third of the size of his flat in Tamweel and his family was keen to move back.

“Our families are not happy, we are missing our home,” he said. “The children always ask me when we will be back to our home where they can sleep in their own rooms, but restoration work has not even started on Tamweel Tower.

“We hope that by this time next year we will be able to move into our own apartment again before the ending of our second-year rental contracts.”

Surendra Nayer, a spokesman for the homeowners’ association board that jointly owns the tower with Tamweel, said a third-party contractor had sent a damage estimate to Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, the master developer of JLT, for approval.

Owing to a change of jurisdiction, all new planning requests needed to be submitted to Dubai Municipality, which requires a different format.

After a short delay, the plans were submitted to the authority and are awaiting approval. Once that goes ahead, the work will be put out for tender.

The insurance company for the building, Arab Orient, will need to choose between several estimates submitted by contractors before the work goes ahead.

Mr Nayer said it was still not possible to put a time on when the repair work would start.

“It’s very difficult to give an assessment because these things have a tendency to drag out beyond all expectations,” he said. “When the contractors come back with the costing, that’s when it is likely to get a bit interesting.

“Exactly how these negotiations will proceed I don’t know, partly because I’m not an insurance expert and partly because this is an untried situation.”

Mr Nayer, who is also an owner, said it was not possible to tell whether tenants would be able to move back into their apartments by Christmas next year.

“I’m bleeding money right now,” he said.

Another owner, Pallav Pancholi, said it was not the fault of the owners’ association, or any one institution.

“We’re not happy about it, as we’re losing money on rent,” said Mr Pancholi, who is renting in Al Seef 3, also in JLT. “But the owners’ association are doing all they can. It’s just a procedure we have to go through. There’s nothing we can do to speed it up.”