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19 March 2024

Living Legends defaulters given 30 days to pay up or lose their villa

Living Legend villa (Supplied)

Published
By Parag Deulgaonkar

The developer of the Living Legends project in Dubailand has served investors with final notices to pay their due installments or risk losing their villas.

In the notice published in a local daily, Tanmiyat Global Real Estate Development, said: “You have defaulted in payment of installment/installments of the price of the villas in accordance with Law No (13) of 2008 as amended and its executive regulators, Dubai Land Department, hereby notify you to rectify the default with (30) days as of the date of publication of this notice.” (Scroll below to read amendment to Law No (13) of 2008)
“If you fail to pay the amount due within the specified period DLD shall take the necessary legal proceeding pursuant to clause No. (11) of the aforesaid,” reads the notice issued in a local daily.

Covering an area of 1.340 million square metres within Dubailand, the residential segment of the project will have a total of 500 villas, 12 residential towers, a golf course, golf hotel, and a mall.

A company official told Emirate 24|7 in March 2011 that the project had not been cancelled and the company did not have any refund policy.

“We are not asking investors for money… we will ask them once we reach a certain construction milestone. The defaulters will be dealt as per the law,” the official had said.

Their response had come after nearly 60 investors in the Dh2-billion project had formed an action group and had decided to go on a protest march to the developer’s site office in Dubailand.

Since the past one month, a number of developers have been issuing similar notices in local dailies. In July, Mizin, now merged with Dubai Properties Group, issued cancellation notices to defaulters in its Remraam project in Dubailand followed by Emaar Properties issuing notices to defaulters in their Downtown Dubai projects.

A Real Estate Regulatory Agency official had told Emirates 24|7: “The project is under review from our team and there had been several meeting with group of investors to find options that were acceptable to all parties.

“The developer has said ‘he is committed to the project and has appointed a new contractor with construction work starting on the villas’. But we [Rera] are following the project closely and asking the master developer, Dubai Properties Group, to evaluate the project progress as well.”

What the law states:

Law No (9) of 2009 amending certain provisions of Law No (13) of 2008 regulating the interim real estate register in Dubai
Article (11)

1. In the event the purchaser shall be in default of any of the terms and conditions of the contract for the sale of a real estate unit entered into with the developer, the developer must notify the department of such default. Thereupon, the Department shall give the purchaser, by hand, registered post or e-mail, a 30-day notice to fulfill his contractual obligations.

2. If at the end of the notice period stipulated in the preceding paragraph the purchaser has not fulfilled his contractual obligations, the following provisions shall apply:

a. in case the developer has completed at least 80% of the project, the developer may keep the full amounts paid and request the purchaser to settle the remaining amount of the contract price. If this was not possible, the developer may request that the property be auctioned in order to collect the remaining amounts due to it.

b. in case the developer has completed at least 60% of the project, the developer may revoke the contract and deduct up to 40% of the purchase price of the real estate unit stipulated in the contract.

c. in case of projects where construction commended but did not reach 60%, the developer may revoke the contract and deduct up to 25% of the purchase price of the real estate unit stipulated in the contract;

d. in case of projects whereat construction has not yet commenced for reasons beyond the developer’s control without any negligence or omission on its part, the developer may revoke the contract and deduct up to 30% of the total amounts paid by the purchaser.

3. For the purposes of paragraphs (c) and (d) of this clause 2, the term "construction" shall refer to cases where the site of the project is handed over to the contractor and the construction works have commenced in accordance with the designs approved by the concerned authorities.

4. For the purposes of paragraph (b), (c) and (d) of the foregoing clause, the developer shall return the amounts due to the purchaser within a period not exceeding one year from the date of revocation or within a period not exceeding sixty days from the date of resale of the real estate unit, whichever comes first.

5. Notwithstanding the provisions of clauses 1 & 2 of this Article, the agency may, following a grounded report, decide to cancel a real estate project, in which case the developer must return to the purchasers all the amounts paid by them in accordance with the provisions of Law No (8) of 2007 concerning Escrow Accounts of real estate developments in the emirate of Dubai.

6. The provisions contained in this Article shall not be applicable to contracts of sale of lands where sales were not made off-plan as they shall remain governed by the provisions contained in the contract entered into between the two parties thereto.

7. The provisions of this Article shall apply to all contracts entered into prior to the entry into force of this Law.