Dh900,000 fines for violating Rera’s rules

Dubai: The Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera), the regulatory arm of Dubai Land Department, warned and imposed Dh900,000 fines in 22 real estate companies and brokerage firms across Dubai for not adhering to its terms and regulations.

Yousuf Al Hasehmi, director of Rera;s Real Estate Licensing Department, told Gulf News, “These companies were found violating the licensing termed issues by Rera. Moreover, he added that the violation of Rera rules result in imposing a minimum of Dh50,000 while it could Dh100,000 in the repeated action and it will lead to the list the company on the black list or licence cancellation.”

Rera works to create a professional real estate environment governed by clear laws and regulations, according to Al Hashemi, “Regulating the real estate brokerage profession aims at clarifying relations between different parties, clients and firms in order to protect the rights of clients against any violations of laws and professional ethics that can be committed by real estate brokers.”

Ten types of violations were observed by Rera during the first six months of this year, Al Hashemi added that 12 companies failed to register the real estate broker, while seven companies violated the type of licensed activity by performing other activities. Other irregularities include failure to mention the company’s registration number, failure to register the licence in the brokerage registry and failure to renew the broker ID card.

While there are almost 1,446 real estate companies and 4,062 brokerages in Dubai, the number of violations is not big and such procedures come as a last step after exhausting all means to ensure compliance and safeguarding the rights of concerned parties.

Al Hashemi remarked that most of these violations observed through their inspection team which designated to conduct a daily media or online follow up in addition to the regular inspection campaign and customers complaints.

He said; “Initially the department issued circulars to the brokerage firms which violated the norms regarding the importance of abiding by and complying with regulations. Then Rera issued notices and warning to these firms before imposing fines on them.”