Dubai property developer increases service charges by 129%

Baltimore News.Net
Friday 12th December, 2008

7,000 apartment owners on Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach have been hit with a massive increase in service charges.

Salwan Property Management, formerly Idama, is a subsidiary of the project developer, Dubai Properties, which is linked to the Dubai government.

The Jumeirah Beach Residence project has been controversial due to its non-completion, shoddy exterior finishes, and failed promises to deliver recreational facilities, beach parks, and gymnasiums.

Dubai Properties sold the development as a luxury complex of forty towers comprising 7,000 residential apartments and hotels. It displayed plans and told buyers they would develop acres of beachfront recreational facilities, clubs and gyms. Two years after the completion of the construction they have failed to materialise. One very large section of beachfront, earmarked for beachfront recreational parks, was converted to a bitumen car park earlier this year for commercial, despite calls of condemnation by irate JBR owners and residents.

Occupiers of apartments have consistently complained of the services of the management company saying windows are cleaned only twice a year.

Nonetheless Salwan wrote to Jumeirah Beach residence owners this week advising the services charges levied against their properties would rise from AED 9.50 dirhams ($2.60) per square foot to AED 21.75 dirhams ($5.95) per square foot. Despite the letters being dated 4th December 2008, the manager advised the charges would be backdated to 28th September 2008.

JBR is now one of the highest charging complexes in Dubai. It is another blow to investors in the project that backed it. Dubai Properties only recently boarded up sections of the beachfront saying it now planned to go ahead with construction of the sports clubs. The company is big on rhetoric, and charges, but has failed to deliver in the past. It fails to communicate with owners which has a number of them now forming associations to lobby for the rights of owners and tenants.

Salwan nontheless has started charging the new service charges. The Dubai Properties company has also ignored a ruling by the developer that no apartments in the complex are to be used for short-term letting. This rule was written into the contracts of owners and is strictly enforced.

Contrary to that, Dubai Properties, through Salwan, has now established on its own behalf, a short-term letting business in JBR’s Shams 1 Tower. “Comprising luxuriously furnished loft, 1, 2, and 3 bedroom apartments, the spacious units will boast fully equipped self-contained facilities, and offer panoramic views,” Salwan announced in a recent press release.

Saeed Bushalat, CEO of Salwan Property Management, said, “We have launched the hotel apartments to meet the escalating demand for premium accommodation from various travel segments in Dubai. Whether it is for long term lease or short term stay, we would like our customers to experience maximum comfort and peace of mind in one of the finest communities in Dubai that will serve as a home away from home.”

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