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Some residents of Dubai's Marina Crown tower recently took to social media to share complaints about being locked out of their apartments after the facilities management company introduced a new face-scanning access system.
Last week, one Instagram user, who later deleted his account, claimed that several residents were stranded outside the building for up to seven hours due to confusion between landlords, property owners, and building management. However, other residents pointed out that sufficient notice was given to tenants and owners before the system's implementation.
"About a year ago, the management decided to implement a new system where one car was registered to one apartment, and the car could enter the parking lot without an access card," said Roxana, who owns a few apartments and lives in one of them. "At the same time, they announced the face registration to access the premises, which was to be implemented in May. The implementation only took place in November to give people enough time to register their details."
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German expat A.B., who owns an apartment in the tower, said only those staying in the building illegally faced issues. “Anyone who is an owner or a legal tenant with Ejari and a rental contract could register their face ID. However, people renting illegal partitions or shared bedrooms without contract can’t register for face scan,” he said.
The 51-storey Marina Crown tower, constructed by Emaar Properties in 2006, has apartments and luxury penthouses. The building’s joint common areas are managed by Stratum Owners Association Management, which did not respond to Khaleej Times’ request for a comment regarding the situation.
Roxana, who has lived in the tower for more than seven years, claimed that overcrowding is prevalent in the building as some owners and residents have sublet their apartments to several people.
"They have created illegal partitions and even built showers and bathrooms without proper waterproofing and drainage,” she said. “Some apartments have up to ten people. One tenant owns 40 apartments, each of which has been sublet to several people. The rooms are a real danger for the occupants as they don’t have smoke detectors, and obviously, sprinklers cannot be activated without them. We are afraid that something untoward will happen."
She said she has faced issues because of the illegal structures. "The apartment next to me — a three-bedroom one — has at least seven closed partitions,” she said. “My walls are damaged because of them. They have very bad maintenance and lots of other apartments are frequently flooded. Sometimes, pick-up trucks are parked in the building with old furniture brought to this apartment, leaving a mess in the parking lot.”
Roxana said all their access cards were cancelled in June, and everything switched to facial recognition. "I welcome the move as that means I don’t need to carry any access card,” she said. “My facial recognition was enough to go anywhere in the building.”
However, she added that the illegal tenants found a way around it. "There were people who would wait at the door entrance and sneak in with other registered users,” she said. “Soon, the management linked each face to the particular floor that they lived.”
A.B also welcomed the move by the building management. “I think this the best way to stop sharing apartments,” he said. “Lately, the building is so crowded that I felt like I was back living in university dorms. I hope that this step will stop the illegal sharing."
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