New rent cap law will be announced next month

Ras Al Khaimah: The Rental Dispute Authority has received a decision from the local government that the new rent cap law will be announced in November, delaying the decision by a month.

Residents are worried about the long awaited amendments made on the new law which had given the landlord the upper hand to vacate their tenants.

Although this new law was officially released, the authority implemented it only for a few days.

Rent increases have been capped at 5 per cent for residential property and 7 per cent for commercial property, according to the new rent law No.8 for the year 2008 which was released on May 26.

But this was later frozen as it was vague and needed certain fundamental amendments.

Since the release of the new law the emirate's Rental Dispute Authority has not accepted a single complaint.

The Emirate's authorities then issued an order stating that the new law will be amended and sent to the authority by October 1.

The order also instructed the authority to review the already filed cases with the use of the older rent law which allowed the rents to increase by 15 per cent every two years.

A senior official at the emirate's Rental Dispute Authority said that the controversial new law gives the landlords the right to vacate their tenants with only a three month official notice.