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Dubai: The Dubai Rent Committee will implement the new decree allowing a maximum seven per cent increase on annual rent on properties with effect from yesterday.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, yesterday issued a decree, which stipulates that rent increase shall not exceed seven per cent of the annual rent.
The decree has authorised the special judiciary committee (the Dubai Rent Committee) to settle disputes between landlords and tenants.
The committee was also tasked to come up with appropriate measures to implement the new decree.
Mohammad Ahmad Al Shaikh, General Secretary of the Dubai Rent Committee, told Gulf News the committee would soon meet and draw up a strategy to effectively implement the new decree. He advised tenants to file complaints with the rent committee in case they do not agree to the rent increase demanded by landlords or real estate companies.
Dubai was the first to introduce a 15 per cent rent cap on annual rent in November 2005 in the wake of spiralling rents of residential and commercial properties. That decree ended on December 31. According to the new decree, the rent increase was decided after taking into consideration Decree No 2 of 1993 and its amendments, which set up a special committee to look into and settle disputes between landlords and tenants and the Decree no. 14 of 2005, which set a rent a ceiling for any rent increase in the emirate.
Al Shaikh said rent cap last year had a very positive impact on the rent market. "Most landlords followed the 15 per cent rent cap and the committee also made sure that no one increased the rent by more than 15 per cent as per the law," he said.
"We received more than 4,000 cases in 2006 compared to 3,700 cases in 2005," he said.
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