Confusion over maintenance has left villa residents at The Palm Jumeirah enduring water problems and issues over stinking sewage, XPRESS has learnt.

A tenant said a foul odour due to non-maintenance of the drainage system lingered for three weeks from early September as service calls were tossed between two outfits – Nakheel Asset Management and Design (Namad), the maintenance arm of The Palm developer Nakheel, and Imdaad, a new maintenance company.

“There was a bad smell,'' said a tenant's representative. “Finally, they said ‘sorry, we can't do anything because it's outside the house' and they are only concerned with ‘internal' work inside the villa. Imdaad told us to call Nakheel. When I phoned Nakheel, they pointed us back to Imdaad.''

In three other cases, residents said neither Namad nor Imdaad helped them solve water pump breakdowns inside the villas which caused the taps and toilet flushes to run dry.

No help forthcoming

One tenant was told that the pump needed repairs and could not be replaced as they were under warranty. “Machinery can fail any time… fair enough,'' he said. “But they have been dilly-dallying for a long time, that's the issue.''

They are just some of a handful of Palm Jumeirah residents forced to pick up the tab for blocked sewer pipes and broken in-house water systems, emergencies they thought were covered by the Dh25,000-per-villa annual maintenance fees.

Nakheel says that depending on the problem, most emergency repairs that occur in homes in which the two-year homebuilder warranty has expired are the responsibility of villa owners.

Maintenance fees paid on The Palm are generally payable for the upkeep of the community and its common areas such as roads, infrastructure and landscaping – not for repairs in homes.

“If a resident has a repair issue that falls under the ‘Defects Liability Period' stated in their contract. They should contact Namad for a repair,'' a Nakheel spokesperson told XPRESS.

“In all other cases, the resident should arrange for repairs by a provider of their choice or alternatively contact 800-NAMAD to be transferred to Nakheel's preferred service provider.''

Outsourcing service

The spokesman said Nakheel had outsourced most of its non-warranty maintenance duties in May to Dubai World's Imdaad which, according to Imdaad's website, is a spin-off of Dubai World's former companies. Imdaad couldn't be reached for comment.

The spokesperson said: “Imdaad Environment is appointed by Nakheel Facilities Management to provide waste management and cleaning services for master community areas on Palm.'' Imdaad Operations offers a “Premium Services Programme – a preventative maintenance programme which may cover areas such as pool maintenance or A/C filter cleaning. It does not cover repairs due to negligence by the villa resident or emergency-related works''.

By Derek Baldwin and Jay B. Hilotin, Senior Reporter and Chief Reporter

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