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Future Tense for Families as Dubai Municipality Steps Up Eviction Drive

DUBAI- Municipality has stopped issuing notices to landlords over villa accommodation on a sharing basis and the inspections will get stricter and tougher, starting next week.

Clarifying that the deadline served last month targeting the landlords ends on October 24, Omar Mohammed Abdul Rahman, the Head of the Building Inspection Section at the civic body said: “Immediate action to disconnect water and electricity will be taken without any more notices once the deadline gets over.”

In addition, the Municipality will also intensify the extensive inspection drive with 50 inspectors checking the villas during the day and after sunset.

Earlier, many people, mostly living in the up-market areas like Jumeirah, Al Barsha and Umm Suquim said they would stay on till the Municipality serves notice.

“We clarified saying the deadline served last month is final. With many people complaining that they had very little time to make alternative arrangements, we had given them added time,” Omar said.

The civic body also made it clear in the deadline that the landlords had to ensure that their villas did not violate the regulations.

The landlords need to make sure that their villas are not occupied by more than one family and have no unauthorised partitions.

The landlords found violating are liable for fines upto Dh50,000.

Meanwhile, a majority of the people who are still living in the shared villas said they had very little option left.

“How can a one month deadline ensure that thousands of families will get alternate accommodation?” Swaplin Rao, who lives in the Al Barsha area with his family said.

“It is not practical. The soaring rents and the unending traffic are the biggest hurdles for us.

“Moreover, there is no talk of the introduction of low cost housing schemes.

“We are staring towards an uncertain and dark future,” he said.

joy@khaleejtimes.com