Muscat project making waves

Strata management firm Strata Global helped set up owners' associations for the first ten blocks of townhouses in the waterfront development.

Kent A O'Brien, CEO and managing director of the company says that this is only the first step for the community.

"A forum for each of the 14 sectors of the master community will also be established shortly. The owners' associations may meet as often as requested and may formulate amendments to rules and by laws and also the budgets."

Oman has had strata law in place for over 20 years as per the first Sultani Decree in 1989, explains Kent. "Although the laws are relatively detailed and have provisions such as the right to support and shelter, the rights of owners to form owners' associations, and also for such groups to have independent juristic nature, their legal standing has not become commercial reality. Banks will not allow accounts to be in the owners' associations' name, and the associations have no legal right to enter into contracts, because the mechanics for the issue of a commercial license has not been formulated by the Ministry of Commerce.

"Essentially what we have in Dubai at the moment (‘pre-regulations') is similar to Oman. The common area remains in the developers' name in as much as a strata scheme cannot be registered under the current regime," says Kent.

He says while the property industry in Oman has reacted favourably to the new strata laws introduced in 2006 and 2008, there is a lack of awareness about the Dubai stata laws.

However, he says there is interest among end-users in Dubai. "Over the past few months, I have been approached by an increasing number of owner groups seeking advice and input on a number of issues such as: how defects should be handled, how to secure access to financial information as it relates to past payments of service charges, how to trace the money, aged debtors' history, review of contracts entered into with associated companies and general planning issues. The master developers and many sub-developers are in for a rude awakening when the implementation starts based mainly on their ignorance and a lack of awareness of what happens when owners have more control."

Kent expects the Dubai strata regulations to be released shortly. "I feel, however, we will see a staged release in as much as implementation of the new title structuring and registration may not be as simple as originally perceived. The release of the regulations will see an immense change for the Dubai property market and may be the impetus for countries like Qatar to move forward strata laws." However, one positive move in Dubai has been the formation of an interim owners' committee in Arabian Ranches. This was established as a step towards setting up an owners' association.