Dubai: Squatting and overcrowding are the latest allegations dogging one of New Dubai's plushest areas.
The problems have been publicly raised by owners and tenants in a Marina tower, as they fight back after being targeted in a name and shame campaign for Dh1 million in overdue service fees.
Last month XPRESS reported on the name-and-shame strategy by General Gulf Investment Company (GGICO) to collect outstanding service fees of Dh1 million by listing the names of 37 owners and their outstanding fees in the apartment foyer. It is understood that up to 90 per cent of owners have outstanding fees.
Latest spat
However, in this latest Marina spat, Horizon Tower apartment owner Mohammad Talal Cheikh Elard told XPRESS problems had been brewing for several years at the 45-storey tower. They centred around management and its failure to deal with maintenance, repairs and a lack of transparency around fees paid by owners for tower management.
Elard said there had been problems last year with squatters sleeping in storage cupboards inside the tower. He presented a series of photographs showing beds and makeshift sleeping quarters set up in an electrical cupboard.
The squatters were later discovered to be security and maintenance staff sleeping while working overnight, and the cupboard was no longer used for that.
Elard had heard of similar problems plaguing New Dubai when developers did nothing. He believed developers were using the uncertainty around home owners associations as an excuse to take no action. But, he said, problems that management failed to address hadn't stopped there.
At least one other apartment was known to have up to 14 people living in it and the latest shocking discovery was of prostitutes living and working there, he said. When XPRESS visited the area, neighbours said they saw men coming and going at strange hours.
Meanwhile, a financial audit of accounts had also been demanded by Elard, who was working together with about a dozen other owners in a letter to GGICO. He hoped for a good turnout at a meeting at the end of this month, to hopefully resolve the stand-off.
The dispute follows problems brewing between developers and owners in New Dubai, where residents in Marina Diamond II have also been threatened with service cuts unless outstanding bills are paid. And property sources warned other residents could soon face similar situations with maintenance charges, and legal action has already been threatened by an owner in Jumeirah Village housing complex over service fees demanded before the development was finished.
However, GGICO property manager Ali Khaddoura said all issues could be dealt with at the owners' general meeting on January 31.
