Dubai: An Indian engineer ended up homeless and short-changed when he found that all his belongings were cleared from his studio flat and its locks changed after he returned from a month-long vacation.
Radio 2: Nasreen Abdulla reports on some accommodation problems in the UAE
* Audio supplied by Radio 2
Omkar Nath Pathak, 52, was shocked to find that the studio he had leased from the supposed owner — from February 2010 to February 2011 — was occupied by another tenant when he came back to Dubai from India on August 15.
Unhappy experiences
The new occupant presented a tenancy contract dated August 1, which was signed by another real estate agent. "I have no idea where my belongings are," said Pathak, whose clothes, appliances, personal documents, furniture and cash had gone from Flat No 321 in Building S-04 of International City's Spain cluster.
"I had stayed in the flat only for four-and-a-half months," Pathak said. "My experiences here for the last 12 years have been happy, until this took place." Pathak called the police to the flat on August 15, though the new occupant said the unit was clear when he moved in on August 1. The supposed owner of the flat who gave him the keys, a Pakistani businessman, had disappeared. Pathak said he paid Dh21,000 with a single cheque for the rent when he took possession of the unit in February.
"I signed the tenancy agreement in his office in Sharjah and gave him my cheque there. But when I went there again in August, it was already shut down and his mobile was turned off."
He said he came upon the flat through a newspaper advertisement. His cheque payment had been deposited in the businessman's account soon after he wrote it. When Pathak went to Dubai's Rent Committee to try and resolve the problem, he said he was asked to provide the passport copy of the landlord, which he had already lost along with his own documents left in the flat. Pathak said all of his original documents, including his professional certificates were thrown out of his studio, but he managed to retain a photocopy of the tenancy contract and kept four utility bill payment receipts for the unit under his name.
The engineer said he is temporarily staying with a friend and is fighting a battle to get reimbursed, while hunting for a new place to move in.
- 21,000 Dirhams is what Omkar Nath Pathak paid as rent
