Overcrowding fine: Landlords responsible

If you are a property owner and have leased your apartment, it is better to know who your tenants are!

If your tenant has been issued a fine for breaching the allowable occupancy level in an apartment and has not paid up, you (owner) will be asked to do so if and when he goes to sell his apartment.

A real estate agent, on conditions of anonymity, told 'Emirates24|7' that his client (an owner of a one-bed apartment in International City) was not given a no objection certificate (NoC) by the master developer since there was a fine registered against him.

“One of our clients could not procure a NoC to close the deal. When we approached the master developer, we found out about the fine. The fine was issued to tenant for breaching the allowable occupancy level in an apartment,” the agent said.

“The tenant did not inform the owner and kept quiet about it,” he said, adding that the owner had to pay the fine to get the NoC as he needed to sell his apartment.

Trakhees, the organisational arm of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC), confirmed that the fine is issued in the name of the property owner. However, it said on Tuesday that the tenant was responsible to pay the fine.

Agents say it is not easy for them or even for the landlord to know who actually stays in the rented apartment.

“If the landlord does not reside in the UAE, he will never know who stays in his apartment. Many a times, a company takes an apartment in affordable communities, saying they want it for their senior staff but eventually provide it as a sharing accommodation for the junior staff,” said Parvees Gafur, Chief Executive Officer, PropSquare Real Estate.

This website reported yesterday that the maximum allowable occupancy limit for apartments under Trakhees authority is one person per 200 square feet from the total property area. Violators face a fine of between Dh1000 and Dh50,000.

Trakhees manages controls, regulates and enforces rules and regulations related to environment, health and safety for Nakheel, Limitless, DP World, Jafza among others.

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