ABU DHABI: Four Emirati children, aged 14, 12, 8 and 5, have been evicted along with their mother from their house in Abu Dhabi, the mother Umm Nouf told Gulf News.
“Our landlord cut off electricity and water to the house before sending us to the streets a week after the tenancy contract had ended,” Umm Nouf said.
The landlord’s agent told Gulf News the family was evicted after their contract ended on February 1. “We had to cut off electricity and water to the house as the contract was not renewed and the tenants had to move.”
“I am a widow and I have four children. We lived in a house in the New Al Falah residential compound for three years with an undocumented contract. The contract ended on February 1,” she said.
The woman said neither the police nor the court took any action because the tenancy contract was not authenticated.
“We asked the landlord to give us two months’ notice, until the housing authority grants us a house, but he vehemently refused and insisted on expelling me and my children,” Umm Nouf said with tears in her eyes.
“We had to use bathrooms of nearby mosques as water was disconnected to our house,” she said.
Umm Nouf said when the family returned from the mosque last Friday, they found the front door’s lock had been changed and the landlord’s agent came to evict them. “He claimed that the step brothers of my children changed the lock and handed over the keys and also signed papers that they moved the furniture, although the furniture was still in the house,” she alleged.
“We called the police but they did not take any action because the contract was not authenticated,” claimed Umm Nouf, adding that she along with her children had to stay the night on the streets. “My children were terrified because of the homeless situation, until my neighbour took pity on us and invited us to sleep in her house.”
