Dubai: A court has ordered a property developer and a realty broker to jointly repay Dh522,000 to a consumer, who bought a flat in Jumeirah Village, over breach of contract.
The consumer lodged a realty lawsuit against the developer and the broker accusing them of breaching the sales contract and registering a flat different from the one he had purchased in the Property Register in Dubai.
The Dubai Real Estate Court recently considered the contract [between the claimant and the defendants] null and void because the developer and broker failed to honour the terms of the contract.
Advocate Tarek Sa’ad from Dr Habib Al Mulla and Company mentioned in the lawsuit that the consumer paid Dh522,000 out of Dh2.45 million, the total cost of the property unit that he purchased in July 2008.
“The consumer paid in cheques and he received receipts against his payments. He was given documents bearing the developer’s name as the letter head confirming that the completion date was 2009. The developer did not register the project in the Lands and Property Department. The developer did not give the consumer a copy of the final contract and didn’t register the flat in his name in the Property Register,” the lawsuit said.
Records showed that during the trial the Lands and Property Department notified the Real Estate Court that the unit subject to dispute was not listed in the initial registration system. Shortly after that the department notified the court that there was another flat with a different number registered in the consumer’s name.
The court then appointed one of the department’s experts to look into the case and hand in a report.
The expert reported to the court that the developer had failed to finish the project and that only four per cent of it was completed. He also told the court that the developer failed to allot a tentative deadline for completion and hand-over of the project after failing to award the project’s execution to a main contractor. The expert mentioned in the report that the developer claimed that the project was scheduled to be completed in 2014.
The court was also informed, as per the expert’s report, that no construction work was noticed at the project site for more than a year and a half.
The expert also reported that the developer registered a different unit in the consumer’s name and that the two units had different area specifications and prices.
Presiding Judge Al Sayyed Abu Al Hassan considered the contract void and ordered the defendants to jointly repay Dh522,000 to the consumer plus nine per cent legal interest.
The primary judgement remains subject to appeal.
