UAE | Housing & Property
Move out, board tells Rashid colony tenants
Tenants living in the first three blocks of the Rashid colony will have to move out, said officials from the Dubai Development Board yesterday.
- By Sunita Menon, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 November 1, 2006
- Image Credit: Asghar Khan/Gulf News
- A tenant's children look over a balcony as their parents talk to Development Board members below.
Dubai: Tenants living in the first three blocks of the Rashid colony will have to move out, said officials from the Dubai Development Board yesterday.
The eviction deadline given to tenants by the Board ended yesterday. The tenants received their first eviction notice on May 1 while the second was served on October 10.
A team of officials from the Board who visited the blocks held discussions with a group of tenants who requested an extension on humanitarian grounds. The officials said that under circumstances where tenants refuse to vacate the flats the Board will be left with no choice but to take legal action.
The officials told Gulf News that the Board had received signatures from 192 tenants who have agreed to vacate their flats.
Hamui Mounzer, director of the properties department of the Board, defended the move to demolish the blocks. He said: "The blocks are over 35 years old. Lack of hygiene over the years has turned them into health hazards."
He said that the Board, in one of the inspections, had come across 20 to 25 people living in a single flat. "There is no air circulation. Then we also have the problem of tenants sub-letting their flats to blue collar workers. They have turned it into mini labour accommodation. The key money asked by tenants for subletting goes up to Dh50,000," said Mounzer.
He said that the Board has given ample time to tenants to look for alternative housing. "Tenants want us to give them an extension until the academic year ends. Some say they cannot find alternative housing. But the same scenario that we have today will be repeated in six months and in five years."
The officials said the Board is not a profit making body and have taken the tenants in consideration. "If we wanted to make money we would have increased the rents but we did not do that. The average rent is Dh10,000," said Mounzer.
He said that out of 384 tenants who stay in the three blocks only 180 are families and the rest are single men living together. "We have taken all this into consideration and decided to demolish the blocks. The Rashid colony will be replaced by low cost residential blocks catering to the middle income group," said Mounzer.
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