Dubai: Dubai’s senior property regulator said the loss of rental funds by residents who trusted a man posing as a real estate broker is a textbook case of “buyer beware.”
As residents of Old Town and The Greens prepare to meet tonight to discuss options on how to recoup their untold lost yearly rents from Shamyana Entertainment Services, Marwan Bin Ghalita, CEO of Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), said people considering rental properties must be fiercely diligent when entering agreements.
The owner of Shamyana company, H.M.K., according to upset tenants, has vanished and calls placed by Gulf News to the company’s Dubai offices have gone unanswered.
RERA, Dubai Economic Department and Dubai Rent Committee officials are looking into claims by tenants that their money is missing.
Meanwhile, Bin Ghalita warned others considering new leases in the near future that without conducting proper background checks on real estate brokers, would-be renters can be left out of pocket and scrambling for answers, he said.
While noting the current troubles for duped tenants is unfortunate, Ghalita told Gulf News that “hopefully, this will be a lesson for everybody to deal with approved companies only…you can do your own research.”
He said a surefire way to test the validity of a real estate company or broker that a person is entrusting with large amounts – up to a year’s advance rental fees – is to log on to the Dubai Land Department website.
The website, www.dubailand.gov.ae/English/Real_Estate_Licenses/EngLessons.aspx, offers the public a complete list of real estate companies and brokers who are legally licenced to work in Dubai, he said.
A person exploring a lease option should not enter any leasehold agreement with any company that is not listed on the Land Department’s licenced broker list, he said.
Each company that is licensed must put up a Dh5 million bond to protect consumers in the event of any wrongdoing.
He also reminded tenants to ensure that they register their new rental contracts with the Land Department given that any non-compliant company conducting real estate business will be discovered by the system.
In the case of the Shamyana tenants, when at least one resident tried to register his leasehold contract, “the system would not accept the registration because the company was not a licenced real estate company,” said Bin Ghalita. “That’s why we are running awareness campaigns for tenants to register their rental contracts.”
Tenants, meanwhile, are joining forces to explore options on recovering their money.
The victims have created a Facebook page called Shamyana Victims which can be found at http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/ShamyanaVictims.
The group is hosting a meeting tonight at Al Thayyal 1 in The Greens at 7pm.
