Tenants of Abu Dhabi high-rise call for action after claims of windows suddenly shattering

Residents have expressed alarm as windows in at least two apartments in Gate Towers have shattered in the past week.

Temporary repairs to the window in Dr Sumbal Khokhar’s flat on the 52nd floor of Gate Towers, on Reem Island. Mona Al Marzooqi / The National

ABU DHABI // Tenants of a high-rise building on Reem Island say their windows have spontaneously shattered, causing safety concerns among residents.

Layers within the panes, which are made of double-glazed tempered glass, have shattered in at least two apartments at Gate Towers in the past week, both in homes with young children.

“I think everybody’s concerned,” said Dr Sumbal Khokhar, 31, a dentist, who lives in Gate Towers with her family, including her four-year-old daughter Aiza and her 20-month-old son.

Aiza was in her room on Tuesday when she called for her mother to look at what had happened to the window, said Dr Khokhar. Tiny pieces of glass had fallen on the floor, although a film-like layer still held the pane together.

The incident left her feeling unnerved because her children sometimes played at the windowsill, which is close to the floor and is next to Aiza’s bed.

“I thought it was safe,” said Dr Khokhar, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment on the 52nd floor and pays rent of about Dh140,000 a year. “I am pregnant and the stress of dealing with this whole thing has not been good for my condition.”

Residents have discussed the incidents on a Facebook page for the community, where Dr Khokhar said other tenants had posted photos of the same problem happening to them, and some claimed it took months for the windows to be fixed.

A municipal official and representatives from the facility management company, Khidmah, as well as the contractor, Arabian Construction Company, visited her apartment on Wednesday to examine the area.

The official, who said he could not be interviewed because of municipal policy, asked the contractor representative about whether the company had inspected the windows and speculated on the cause, such as temperature or being hit by the tenants, before ruling both out.

The official said that he thought the tenant was overreacting to the incident and deemed it safe until the window was fixed, which they told Dr Khokhar would take seven to 10 days.

Dr Khokhar said Khidmah had first covered the damaged area with cardboard, but replaced it with plywood after she insisted. She said she was first told that six other residents had broken windows, although Khidmah representatives visiting her apartment denied this.

Khidmah did not respond to a request for comment on how many complaints the company had received about windows shattering.

The company also said that it had not received a complaint from a tenant on the 57th floor who said her window had shattered on Wednesday morning.

Aashima Chauhan, who has recently bought the apartment where she lives with her husband and seven-month-old son, said she was shocked when in the morning she found that the master-bedroom window had shattered and then called Khidmah to report it, although no one had yet visited to inspect.

New to the building, Ms Chauhan, 30, said she had been watching the Facebook posts about the window the day before.

“I was telling my husband, ‘Look what is happening in Gate Towers’,” she said.

While she is not worried about her son, she immediately checked all the windows after seeing the one that had shattered.

“This is not acceptable, with or without kids,” she said.

Aldar Properties, the developer, also did not respond to requests for comment.