Dubai The trail of victims Haitham Mahmoud Al Kouatly has left behind is growing in numbers. Following an XPRESS report last week, more horror stories of expats who’ve been robbed of a year’s rent are being uncovered.
For British personal assistant Laura, her dream home turned into a nightmare. In March she leased a one-bedroom apartment in Old Town from a reputed real-estate agent. Upon signing the contract, she noticed the name of the landlord listed as Shamyana Entertainment Services, owned by Haitham Mahmoud Al Kouatly. “I should have questioned why an entertainment company was posing as a landlord,” she says, “but seeing that everything was done through a real estate firm, I didn’t probe too deep.”
Laura paid Al Kouatly Dh70,000 in a single cheque for the rent, plus a five per cent cash deposit and a further five per cent to the agency as their fees. “Last week, I found a note slipped under my door from an Indian businessman who says he’s the real landlord of my apartment, informing me that Shamyana had sublet the apartment illegally. They followed it up with an email in which they said ‘as per contract the apartment is to be used by Mr Haitham for his residential purpose and is not authorised to sublease the same to any individual or institutions for whatever purpose. We have learned that you are using the said apartment and in case either M/s Shamyana Entertainment Service or Mr Haitham made any lease/sublease contract with you, it is not legal. We would like you to furnish us a copy of the contract if you have executed any’.
“I’ve paid a full year’s rent to Shamyana in March. Could the real homeowner evict me? The owner, who is out of town all this week, has agreed to meet with me early next week. I hope we can reach some compromise,” she said.
Laura isn’t alone in this ordeal.
Cathy and John, a Scottish couple, also met with the American-Saudi man who called himself Sam last month. “Sam showed us a one-bedroom apartment in the Greens for Dh65,000 a year. He told us that if we paid upfront in one cheque, we would get an extra month’s rent for free. Moreover, he said our Dewa bills would also be covered by him. It sounded so good that we jumped on the offer. We signed a contract between myself and Haitham [as the owner of Shamyana], scheduled to begin in the middle of August and paid him all his money upfront. However, closer to the date, Sam informed us of some technical delays and asked us to wait for another fortnight. At the start of this month when, unable to get through to Sam any longer, we visited the apartment, only to find out that it had already been sublet to a Kuwaiti family, who had moved in a week ago!”
