I have a property in Dubai with a tenant occupying the residence until September 30. However, I wish to sell the unit as soon as possible.
I know that I need to give them a 12-month notarised eviction notice. Can I serve this notice before September 30 and sell the property with the tenant still in place?
I live in Singapore. Can this be done without me travelling to Dubai?
Does the eviction notice need to be delivered directly to the tenant by a courier company or can it be posted on the unit’s door?
Do you have a ballpark figure on how much it would cost to create this notice and deliver it? RD, Singapore
The 12 months’ notice to evict a tenant should be served upon expiry of the preceding tenancy agreement, according to Law 26 of 2007 and the amended Law 33 of 2008, which govern the relationships between landlords and tenants.
However, some judges at the Rental Dispute Settlement Committee are allowing this notice to be served at any time. It, therefore, appears that you can serve the notice whenever you like.
You can also market the property for sale and sell it with a tenant in residence.
As the eviction notice can be delivered either via notary public or registered mail, you can send it from Singapore. You will have to translate the document into Arabic.
When the notice is being sent through a notary public, it is common practice in Dubai to also send it by registered mail.
The courier company will paste the eviction notice on the apartment door and this action is considered as a delivery in the court’s eyes.
If you cannot travel to Dubai, you can appoint a power of attorney to act on your behalf to start proceedings at the rent committee.
You can use the services of a lawyer or conveyancing company to do this. Their charges vary depending on who you choose, but start from about Dh4,000.
Drawing up a notarised eviction notice and sending it by registered mail should cost less than Dh1,000.
I signed a memorandum of understanding to buy a vacant unit on transfer from an individual seller. I was expecting to receive the apartment from the developer in June 2022, but it is not ready yet.
I checked a similar apartment from another phase in the project, but found it unsuitable because the bathroom is small.
I refused to proceed with the transaction and offered the seller Dh90,000 as compensation for any losses he may have incurred.
However, the seller refused to cancel the MoU and insists on being paid 10 per cent deposit, as stated in the document. I have not given the 10 per cent deposit cheque to the agent yet.
The MoU was not executed on the Dubai Land Department website. JL, Dubai
Since you were not able to view the unit you were hoping to buy, I understand why you would not wish to proceed now.
When one party wishes to break a contract of sale, the normal form of compensation is to forfeit the 10 per cent deposit given at the time of signing.
Even though you didn’t lodge this payment at the time of signing the MoU, it does not mean you cannot offer the amount now.
If the Dh90,000 you are offering is not equivalent to the 10 per cent deposit, you should look to increase the compensation amount.
A signed paper MoU, while still a legal document, does not hold any weight at the DLD.
For some time now, the electronically generated Form A (contract between agent and seller) and Form B (contract between buyer and agent) are necessary to create Form F (contract of sale between buyer and seller). This is done through the DLD app.
Dubai rents, Q2 2022
This is the correct method of drafting the property sale contract, the DLD has said.
If the MoU is not made this way, the DLD will not honour it should there be a dispute. Therefore, you would need to go to the civil court to resolve your dispute. This would take time and cost a fair amount of money.
If you can arrange for a mutual agreement to cancel the contract between you and the seller, this will be more suitable than going to court.
Alternatively and to avoid unnecessary expenses, you could still buy the unit and immediately try to sell it to someone else. This will offer you freedom, but could take a long time.
Mario Volpi is the sales and leasing manager at Engel & Volkers. He has worked in the property sector for more than 35 years, in London and Dubai. The opinions expressed do not constitute legal advice and are provided for information only. Please send any questions to mario.volpi@engelvoelkers.com
Dhadak
Director: Shashank Khaitan
Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana
Stars: 3
UAE v Ireland
1st ODI, UAE win by 6 wickets
2nd ODI, January 12
3rd ODI, January 14
4th ODI, January 16
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
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Friday Leganes v Alaves, 10.15pm; Valencia v Las Palmas, 12.15am
Saturday Celta Vigo v Real Sociedad, 8.15pm; Girona v Atletico Madrid, 10.15pm; Sevilla v Espanyol, 12.15am
Sunday Athletic Bilbao v Getafe, 8.15am; Barcelona v Real Betis, 10.15pm; Deportivo v Real Madrid, 12.15am
Monday Levante v Villarreal, 10.15pm; Malaga v Eibar, midnight
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Kathryn Hawkes of House of Hawkes on being a good guest (because we’ve all had bad ones)
- Arrive with a thank you gift, or make sure you have one for your host by the time you leave.
- Offer to buy groceries, cook them a meal or take your hosts out for dinner.
- Help out around the house.
- Entertain yourself so that your hosts don’t feel that they constantly need to.
- Leave no trace of your stay – if you’ve borrowed a book, return it to where you found it.
- Offer to strip the bed before you go.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Retail gloom
Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.
It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.
The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.
Hunger and Fury: The Crisis of Democracy in the Balkans
Jasmin Mujanović, Hurst Publishers
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The struggle is on for active managers
David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.
The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.
Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.
Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.
Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.
At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn.
Muslim Council of Elders condemns terrorism on religious sites
The Muslim Council of Elders has strongly condemned the criminal attacks on religious sites in Britain.
It firmly rejected “acts of terrorism, which constitute a flagrant violation of the sanctity of houses of worship”.
“Attacking places of worship is a form of terrorism and extremism that threatens peace and stability within societies,” it said.
The council also warned against the rise of hate speech, racism, extremism and Islamophobia. It urged the international community to join efforts to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
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The seven points are:
Shakhbout bin Sultan Street
Dhafeer Street
Hadbat Al Ghubainah Street (outbound)
Salama bint Butti Street
Al Dhafra Street
Rabdan Street
Umm Yifina Street exit (inbound)
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
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Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
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One in nine do not have enough to eat
Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.
One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.
The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.
Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.
It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.
On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.
Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.
Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
UAE tour of the Netherlands
UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures: Monday, first 50-over match; Wednesday, second 50-over match; Thursday, third 50-over match