Dubai: Almost a year after a massive fire gutted the 34-storey Tamweel Tower in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT), apartment owners say they are still living in limbo, waiting endlessly for the building to be restored.
“My life has been on hold for the last year. It’s been really difficult picking up the pieces. We have had to make major adjustments in our lifestyle, but what is more disturbing is that we don’t know how long this will go on. All that we owners want is to see the building restored to its original state so families can re-start living here,” said Tina Halela, 30, an Indian expatriate owner of a three-bedroom apartment on the 29th floor of the tower.
Her 2,900 square foot apartment facing the Emirates Golf Course was gutted in the fire that struck the 160-apartment tower last November 18. According to Dubai Police, a cigarette butt thrown into a garbage bin below the building containing papers and other flammable materials caused the fire. Since then the tower has been shut down with nobody living there. Even those whose homes were not damaged do not live in the building.
Currently, only a few guards are looking after the building and only one of the five lifts is operational.
Immediately after the fire, compensation was given to owners to take care of a month’s accommodation. Owners were paid according to the size of the apartment they owned. According to residents, typically, a three-bedroom apartment owner was paid around Dh11,000 and a two-bedroom apartment owner was paid Dh8,000.
Maintenance charges on all the apartments have been reduced from Dh13 per square foot to around Dh7.5 per square foot.
Tamweel has frozen all mortgages to owners having a loan with them. But there has been no benefit for apartment owners having mortgages with other banks as they continue to pay their monthly equated monthly instalments (EMI).
Residents said they have been kept informed by the building’s Interim Owners’ Association board regarding the various processes involved to get the building back in order. However, they said, too much time has elapsed with no tangible result.
In an e-mail to a building owner in July, the board said a restoration contract would be awarded by October 22 with works beginning by December 8 to meet a July 7, 2014 completion deadline.
However, another e-mail from the board to another building owner on October 21 reads: “Dear owners, as you are aware, the consultants (WSP) have submitted their report to DMCC [Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, the master developer of JLT] for their review and approval. DMCC have now asked us to resubmit the report to Dubai Municipality (DM) and get their approval. DMCC will issue their no objection certificate (NOC) once we have obtained the approval from DM. Restoration process can only start after we have received such NOC….This may cause further delay to the approval process…”
Bitter memory
In the meantime, Tina’s house remains charred, leaving many bitter memories for her and her family.
“It’s difficult to keep coming back to this apartment and looking at all our things mangled and burnt. The displacement that we had to face after the fire and the fact that there has been no progress in the restoration of the building is more annoying than the incident itself.”
Her apartment wears a dingy look even on a bright afternoon mainly from the soot that still covers most of it. “One of the reasons we bought this house was because of the enormous sunlight coming into the flat that lit up the house. But now it all looks so dark,” she says.
A make-up kit and some earrings are still lying in her main bedroom – but she cannot use them as they are heavily burnt. A printer on the other side is completely mangled. But it is her daughter’s bedroom with a door sign reading ‘My little princess’ that gets her unnerved.
“I personally did this room up with a butterfly theme,” she says, adjusting a sticker on the wall. Her daughter’s crib is intact – but a window beside it is shattered, revealing a big hole.
Shattered glass is strewn all over a soot-filled room and a squeaky floor tile is all she is left with in the room now. A large dining table still sits in her hall. “It’s too big to fit into the relatively smaller apartment I am renting now. So we had to buy new furniture all over again. My kitchen appliances too are still here as my new apartment came fitted with them. I am afraid the ones here are going to be damaged as the windows are all broken and a sandstorm can ruin them. Whenever I return here I do so prepared for more losses.”
Besides carrying bitter memories, she and her family have had to undergo major lifestyle changes that have amounted to an additional financial burden. Tina continues to settle a mortgage (taken from an Indian bank) on her Tamweel apartment which she bought in 2011. Additionally, she pays a monthly Dh2,000 maintenance charge on the unit. But the biggest hole in her pocket has been the Dh115,000 annual rent she pays for a two-bedroom unit on Shaikh Zayed Road that she is currently leasing until the Tamweel Tower is restored and ready for occupation.
‘Speed up restoration’
Kashif Shaikh, 39, Pakistani expatriate owner of a two-bedroom apartment on the 19th floor is calling on concerned authorities to speed up the restoration process.
He and his brother own two apartments in the building. While his apartment was partially damaged, his brother’s was unscathed. However, since the building has been shut, both have been forced to live elsewhere.
“From owning a spacious 2,400 square foot apartment in the tower, I have now moved into a less than 1,000 square foot two-bedroom apartment in The Gardens. My brother’s was a bigger three-bedroom apartment and now he has had to cringe into a small two-bedroom apartment.”
He said the lease on his rented apartment in The Gardens is up for renewal and he is not happy at all. “Tamweel Tower is one of the hottest buildings in JLT – its my dream house and I want to get back to living there soon.”
John Cox, 59, British expatriate owner of a two-bedroom apartment on the 19th floor, is in the same boat. He too has had to accommodate changes that are proving costly.
“It has been extremely difficult for us in the past year. We have incurred major expenses – the biggest being the additional rent we are forced to pay. We are also being penalised with maintenance charges, electricity and water bills, and it’s frustrating to see that no progress has been made to get the building livable.
“Almost a year has passed with umpteen consultations, reports and surveys of the building. However, we are yet to see any action.”
Meanwhile, Shama Dadarkar, 31, owner of a two-bedroom apartment on the 26th floor, said she will not return to the flat even after the building is restored.
“The fire was a wake-up call to young mothers living in high-rises. My son was just two months old at the time and together with my older two-year-old daughter, we all ran down 26 floors. It was a nightmare and I don’t want to relive that,” she said.
No comment was immediately available either from Tamweel or DMCC.
