Dubai: Emaar should change the way it calculates maintenance fees to avoid disparity among homeowners, say gated-community residents who are facing a new round of service charge hikes for 2010.
Maintenance fees are currently calculated for each villa based upon the owner's land plot size and not upon the gross floor area of the actual residence - fees cover the upkeep of roads and common areas such as parks and swimming and sporting facilities.
The existing formula - based upon provisions in the draft strata law that is yet to come into force - is yielding fluctuating service charges for homeowners with identical villas, owners say.
Fair share
Long-time Springs villa owner Martin Seward-Case said the fee formula is flawed and should be changed to ensure that each resident pays his or her fair share, based upon a fair property assessment that accounts for both plot area and villa size.
For example, Seward-Case lives in an end unit and pays Dh11,400 annually in maintenance fees, but his next-door neighbour in an identically-sized villa pays only Dh7,400.
"Our service demands are the same, but I'm paying almost 50 per cent more," he said. "The fees shouldn't be based upon total area of the ownership of land."
A Lakes resident who didn't want to be identified said she and her neighbours are equally upset that they live in smaller villas worth under Dh5 million but pay more in fees than the larger Dh12-Dh20 million Hattan villas on smaller plots. "This formula needs to be changed for a more fair system."
An Emaar spokesperson said: "Each community only pays for what it consumes and in some cases, an owner of a unit in a smaller community could pay more than an owner of a similar unit in a larger community due to economies of scale and apportionment of costs across a larger ownership base."
