What you can do if your property project is on hold

What you can do if your property project is on hold

According to a recent report, 243 real estate developments in Dubai have either stalled or been cancelled. Here are six courses of action if it happens to you.

March 8, 2010 3:09 by Aarti Nagraj

Dubai’s property sector witnessed a massive collapse after the global financial crisis, and developers and investors in the emirate are still struggling to come to terms with it. The new project launches have dried up, and according to research firm Proleads, 243 of the 1,110 construction projects in Dubai were cancelled or indefinitely on hold last year. Most of the remaining projects were delayed, Proleads said.

So if you are one of those unfortunate investors who pumped in money into a stalled development, what can you do?

1. Go to the property court

Immediately after the real estate crash in 2008, the local government announced a Dubai Property Court to exclusively deal with real estate disputes. The court was formed with a specialist bench of judges with experience in dealing with property disputes, and authorities said that it also had access to a panel of surveyors, engineers, architects, accountants and other property experts for technical advice. Between January and May last year, the court registered 520 cases.

2. Take free legal advice

In November last year, the Dubai Land Department announced an initiative to give property owners free legal advice. The authority signed on a number of law firms to join the Legal Care Group, which it said was set up to guide investors who have “genuine real estate issues”, but who had previously been reluctant to file cases against developers due to the hefty legal fees.

Mohammed Sultan Thani, assistant director general of the Dubai Land Department, said: “The objective of this initiative is not merely to meet a need but to ensure fairness and justice is available to anyone who might have a concern which involves property, no matter their circumstances.”
“Now, no one is prevented from pursuing their rights merely because of the possibility they might be priced out of the legal system,” he added.

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Tags: cancelled, Dubai, Financial Crisis, investors, on hold, property, property court, Real estate

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3 Comments

the real truth on March 8, 2010 8:20 pm

One of the biggest scandals of all time is RERA themselves NOT canceling projects that clearly arent viable, even when the developer itself understands the project is not viable and all Investors agree it is not viable, yet they refuse to cancel and continue to show on their state of the art progress indicator that the project is continuing to progress!! Yes real big leaps have been made…with what they want you to believe at any rate!!
neeta on March 15, 2010 11:57 am

All the above options are being spoken about but honestly there is nothing concrete . The projects will not be cancelled since no developer wants to offically accept that he has not done his job and even started digging . One clear example is ACI , i have seen so many complaints on websites about this company that i am surprised RERA is not doing anything . I think if RERA and dubai govt needs to clear the mess all projects which havent even started and get the money back to the actual owners . The escrow accounts have details of our investments but equally the owners have spent part of it for management fees and land deals can RERA not clear all this and state that if the project is not moving and we as investors will provide proof they will cancel the licence of the developer . Someone has to get up and help everyone to move . Few of us cannot run this race and bring everyone to task .
shabnam on March 23, 2010 9:26 am

our project has been oficially cancelled by rera on jan/2010 . for the last 3 moths rera is not responding to any of investors in their legal department they just direct every one to dubai court.
in dubai court also they dont take any action till you pay the court fee. so THERE IS NO HELP NO WHERE IN DUBAI. unfortunately we are all losers by investing in dubai , we are all neglected !!!!!!!!!!!!!
there is no free legal advise+ there is no support from property court, if you dont bileve please go ahead and check.