Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera) is planning to ask interim owner associations (IOAs) to install separate chiller metres in their buildings so tenants will have to pay the chiller consumption charges, 'Emirates24|7' can reveal.

“We are planning to ask IOAs to instal separate chiller metres so the tenant pays directly to the service provider for what they consume.

Property owners will have pay the charges for the common area,” said Mohammed Khalifa bin Hammad, Senior Director, Rera.

According to clause 65 of the Direction for Association Constitution, Rera can enforce the owners association to install separate meters for all units and common areas for all utility service providers and may enforce the utility service suppliers to separate the utility fees of the common areas from the fee for the unit owners.

Bin Hammad said the agency took the initiative of giving chiller charges separately in the service charge budget to enable the owner to know the cost of chiller.

“It is thyen up to the owner and the tenant to agree who pays for the chiller,” he added.

Currently in buildings where there is no separate chiller metres, the landlord/owner pays bears the chiller charges.

This website reported earlier that IOAs will be able to open and operate bank accounts in the next few months.

“We will soon be signing MoUs with three local banks. Since it is an entirely new service that the banks will have to provide, we have to give them time to fine tune themselves with our regulations. Hence, it will take some months for us to issue letters to IOAs which will allow them to open bank accounts,” Bin Hammad had said.