UAEssentials | Ask The Law
Authorisation to sublet required
- Published: 21:26 November 10, 2011
- SUBJECT
- Employment
- Image Credit: Bloomberg
- Authorisation from landlord to sublet required
A villa in Dubai was sublet to me and I paid the rent for a full year in two instalments, the first payment cash and a post-dated cheque. The main tenant and the owner are fighting a case at the rent committee regarding my villa. The court has not issued any verdict as of October 20. The owner had been pressuring me to leave the villa and recently he brought officials to issue a legal warning. I was given a week and as such I vacated the villa. The main tenant knows all this and when asked he said that he would settle and give me back my rent. Now I have left he is refusing to keep his promise saying as the case is not over he will not pay. He made an agreement with me which mentioned the amount he received. Is there any way I can get my money back from him?
It seems to me that maybe the questioner rented the villa illegally; ie the main tenant was not authorised by the landlord to lease the villa, thus the questioner used the villa contrary to law. Then, the landlord brought the officials and may be they intervened to prevent the violation and pressured the questioner to vacate. If not, and the subletting is legal no one would be able to get you out of the villa, especially as you mention the judicial committee, rent section, has not issued its verdict yet. If so, if the questioner failed to claim his rights from the main tenant before the judicial committee competent in the rental disputes, he may file a complaint before the Public Prosecution that the main tenant took his money fraudulently by leasing him the villa illegally, if the main tenant did not have authorisation from the landlord to sublet.
Questions answered by Advocate Mohammad Ebrahim Al Shaiba of Al Shaiba Advocates and Legal Consultants.
