Dubai: The changes in the UAE's legal provisions regarding criminalisation of bounced cheques due to insufficient funds have necessitated a new way to report bounced cheques.
Last year, the UAE Cabinet amended some provisions of Federal Law No. 18 of 1993 (Commercial Transactions Law), including those related to bounced cheques. It came into effect from January 2 this year.
According to senior legal advisor Wageh Abdel Aziz, the cheque holder should first ask the bank for a certificate of the bounced cheque to file it with other documents through the Dubai Courts’ website.
“The bank should give a certificate of the bounced cheque, including the name of the account holder, his address, email, Emirates ID, his passports number and other details as it they are listed in the bank system, in order to use it in court as an executive bond,” Aziz told Gulf News.
The bank should identify other accounts of the issuer of the bounced cheque, amount of cash as well as the name and details of the cheque holder.
The holder of the cheque can log on to Dubai Courts’ website and use the service after completing registration.
According to Dubai Courts, people can obtain the cheque execution service either through the Dubai Courts website, law firms or the Al Adheed Centre.
“The holder of the bounced cheque should upload a request, documents and other requirements. If the written documents are in a foreign language, then they must be first translated [into Arabic] and legally certified,” added Aziz.
Documents needed
According to Dubai Courts, the person who requests execution service on the bounced cheque should obtain: Emiratis ID or passport for visitors, commercial licence for companies or entities, his address, contact and a certificate of his international account number.
What does it cost?
After agreeing to the conditions and paying a fee of Dh50 and Dh300 to request a travel ban on the issuer of the bounced cheque, the holder of the cheque should pay two per cent of the amount of the cheque or whatever amount remains if the bank paid a partial amount of what is in the account. The maximum amount of payment is between Dh200 to Dh5,000.
“After that, the holder of the cheque will get an executive bond and a travel ban against the issuer will be activated,” said Aziz.
15-day notice
After 15 days of alerting the issuer by the court, the holder of the bounced cheque can request selling any assets or money that the issuer has as well as put him under the wanted list to force him to pay the cheque amount.
“The issuer of the bounced cheque has 15 days to present a settlement to the court after receiving the notification. The settlement should include a report of declaration of his money and debts as well as salary certificate and a list of owned vehicles, commercial licenses, shares and properties.”
