Owners' associations for each cluster

DUBAI: The Dubai Land Depart-ment (DLD) is in talks with Nakheel to establish owners' associations (OA) in Discovery Gardens (DG) and International City (IC), a senior official said.

Mohammad Khalifa Bin Hammad, Head of Real Estate Relations Management, Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Rera), said: "Plans are for one OA to be set up for each cluster within DG and IC. We're talking to Nakheel on this."

DG has six clusters: Zen, Mogul, Mediterranean, Meso-American, Contemporary and Cactus across 291 buildings, while IC has 10 clusters: Persia, Greece, Spain, Morocco, England, France, Italy, Russia, China and Emirates.

A resident of DG told XPRESS: "It's important that OAs are true representatives of building owners, rather than Nakheel picking up a few to run the buildings. Clarity is needed from Nakheel and Rera. These developments are massive with many buildings under one cluster." He called for OAs to be set up as quickly as possible in DG and IC as they are facing a number of issues surrounding the developments.

Take the case of service fees, which are exorbitant in some DG buildings. Defaults amount to nearly Dh1.2 million in one building and Dh833,000 in another. As a result, many buildings are left without maintenance and security personnel.

A daring daylight robbery took place in one of the DG buildings in the Mediterranean Cluster when three people barged into an apartment with armed knives.

"We are concerned... our buildings need proper security especially because families live here," said another resident.