42 Abu Dhabi families face eviction

Abu Dhabi authorities have ordered 42 families to evict their houses in the capital’s outskirts after they found that the landlord had violated construction regulations, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Abu Dhabi municipality sent a court order to the families in villas in Abu Dhabi Gate district just outside the capital, asking them to leave their houses.

“This order caught the families off guard,” the Arabic language daily Emirat Alyoum said. “They said they respect the court decision but that they were surprised that there is a court case and considered it a coercive order.”

The paper quoted an unnamed municipality official as saying the decision followed a series of visits by its inspectors to ensure no violations at committed at construction sites in the city and its outskirts.

“This decision was an unpleasant surprise to us,” said Umm Mohammed, a national woman who has lived in that area with her three daughters and one ill son for nearly 15 years. “I urge authorities to give us some time.”

Another local woman, Umm Abdullah, said she rented a house in one of the affected villas in December.

“I have just received an eviction order,” the mother of three sons said. “I appeal for the authorities to revise this decision or at least my case…I had applied for housing many times but received no reply.”

Emirat Alyoum said another affected tenant is Khawla Ibrahim, a divorced national woman who is supporting two little sons and her ageing mother.

“I had to move into this villa to live with another family because of my low income…most other families in this area pay rent every month or three months because of their low income and difficult social conditions.”

The paper quoted another resident, Ahmed Saleet, as saying many residents had met some judges in Abu Dhabi over the eviction order.

“We found that the Abu Dhabi municipality sought a court order for eviction after sending many notices to the landlord over the construction violations…the landlord has created a court case without the knowledge of tenants,” he said.

“We respect the law but we only need time to sort this eviction…many tenants have already paid large sums of money or cheques for Dh120,000 in rent.”

Abu Dhabi Gate, known previously as “the Officers City”, is around 15 km outside the capital. Most of its residential and commercial blocs are villas.

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