Dubai: Residents of the tranquil and scenic development, The Lakes, are raising a storm as they have been asked to pay a ‘special levy' of Dh0.95 per square foot towards a deficit amount payable for the period of 2008-2009 by their developer Emaar Properties.
Residents said this amount will be payable in addition to the Dh2.78 per square foot service charge that has been set for the community this year. This service charge in itself has seen an increase from last year where the fee was set at Dh2.63 a square foot for The Lakes located between Montgomerie and the Emirates Golf Courses.
The chairman of the Lakes Owners Association Interim Board and other members of the Board told XPRESS they are seeking an independent audit from Emaar to deal with this deficit issue in a fair way.
Fair deal
Roberto Kauffmann, the chairman, said: "Emaar has done a good job in building this community and in maintaining it for so many years. We want to maintain it now and make it better. It is good to see how senior officials of Emaar are so passionate about the community but things just need to be fair."
Another member of the board, Stevi Lowmass, said: "We believe this is the best and fairest way to go. It really needs someone independent to say that this expenditure was for real," she said.
The Lakes has five established communities in all - Deema, Forat, Maeen, Zulal and Al Ghadeer - with Al Ghadeer being the last community to be handed over in 2009.
According to Kauffmann, the deficit due will not be applicable to the Al Ghadeer residents since that part of the development in The Lakes was handed over only in 2009.
Emaar, in a letter to the homeowners, said: "The Special Levy is to cover unforeseen expenses or deficit of past years and to recover the previous years' deficit in The Lakes Community fund and some of the Lakes Community share towards the deficit in the Emirates Living Master Community."
Other reasons laid down by the developer pertain to a sludge in the lakes systems within the community which led to an expensive clean-up operation throughout the pipe network. Enlarging the sewage plant within the area, leading to high temporary cost for tankers and plant refurbishment work, has also added to the additional charges to residents.
Letter of dispute
The residents expect one more such special levy to be charged on them for the next year as well.
For resident Wassim Abu Shaar, his outflow of service charge this year will see an increase of Dh3,000 in addition to the stipulated service fee of Dh8,000. He will pay a total of Dh11,000 this year.
The Lakes Owners Association Interim Board sent an official letter of dispute over the service fee hike on May 5 to Emaar and the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera).
"We still have not received a response from Emaar. Rera, however, said that if we are not happy with the community service fee then we should dispute it," said Kauffmann.
According to Kauffmann, Rera told the Lakes Board members that no invoices can be sent to residents without the approval of Rera and the Interim Owners Association Board.
Further, in an e-mail to the residents of the Lakes Community, the board members said they have decided not to pay the deficit charge at this point. "However, we cannot make ourselves liable by giving owners a recommendation on whether to pay or not," the e-mail said.
Meanwhile, defaults by residents of the community have been on the rise as they demand more clarity and transparency on the service charges.
"We had a 98 per cent collection in 2008 and currently only 80 per cent of the residents have paid service charges till now," said Abu Shaar.
No immediate comment was available from Emaar.
- 0.95: dirhams per square foot charged as ‘special levy'
- 2.78: dirhams per sq ft is the service charge this year
- 3,000: dirhams extra to be paid by resident Wassim Abu Shaar
