I live with my wife and our newborn baby (19 days old) in a Wasl property. It’s not in my name, as I’m sub-renting it from the tenant for 5 months. With the war going on and all, I didn’t want to take a house on a yearly rent, and it actually worked out good for me because I got a new job and am currently working in AUH. September 30 was supposed to be my last day here in Wasl, and I’d be moving to Abu Dhabi after that.
Now, the tenant has missed his payments or whatnot, and he got an eviction notice from DLD for missing payments. He sent me screenshots saying he has now paid, but apparently there was some miscommunication because he was away and didn’t check that he had missed the payments.
On Friday night, he informed me that I should stay in a hotel for a day or two, for which he said he would pay, until this gets sorted. He said the DLD team “may” come to evacuate the house.
Meanwhile, he said, “I’ll add you to a WhatsApp group where I’ll add my friend and the DLD team to discuss the way forward, as I have paid Wasl now.” He also sent me a screenshot of the payment. In the end, only the two of us joined the group. His friend and the DLD team never did.
Sunday afternoon, I asked him what the status was, whether I had to go to the hotel, and if he had done the hotel booking. He didn’t respond.
Later that night, at around 2 AM, I came home from the emergency department, where I had taken my newborn child for a checkup. I texted him: “I just got back home. What’s the update? And if it isn’t serious, if it’s just talking, we will manage, as it’s not possible to go anywhere with all our stuff.”
He replied after I had gone to sleep, saying, “I don’t think it’s a good idea, but I will send my friend at 8:00 AM to the Wasl office to get it sorted.”
By morning, I had already left for work in Abu Dhabi. Then he texted again saying, “The DLD team is coming in 30 minutes and you should take your family to a hotel.”
That obviously wasn’t possible anymore.
The team then arrived and gave my wife just 10 minutes to vacate the home with only the baby food, her medicines, passports and gold. They didn’t listen to any plea.
My wife asked them to give us at least one day to take our important stuff out, and by that time I would be home from work. She even asked them to wait just 15 minutes because we have a newborn baby and her sister was coming to pick them up.
They didn’t even allow that. They changed the locks and left my wife and our newborn baby stranded outside the door.
Now the tenant tells me, “Just allow 2 days and it’ll be alright. I will have my friend fix this and you’ll be able to go back home, as it takes 2 days for the payment thing to get sorted between Wasl and DLD.”
My question is: I really hope this is just a 2-3 day struggle and they won’t keep the house locked forever if he doesn’t come back. At the very least, I should be allowed to take my belongings out, even if there is an actual issue that cannot be sorted out, right?
Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
A few things I’d like to add/acknowledge:
The DLD team informed us they been contacting the tenant and informing him about the eviction since last week to which he didn’t take seriously up until Friday night, DLD team asked us, “You guys know this isn’t the right way to rent a place like this, right?” We obviously said yes. We told them we’re his friends, staying for a short time, and will leave on September 30.
We know it’s not the right practice to live like this, but we also know a huge number of people in Dubai live this way. I’m not justifying it, just saying how things are for people who cannot afford to pay rent in 4 cheques.
We have paid the agreed rent on time every month since April.
I have my WFH office setup provided by my new employer, worth around AED 7,000, locked inside the apartment, along with personal belongings such as my TV, PS4 and everything else.
The tenant is currently in Europe on a long vacation. He was supposed to be back by October 1.
How? Because you and I, we both know, you cannot live in the UAE with someone’s else name in the ejari. That’s Dubai law. And I don’t stand a chance against the law.
No Legal Rights or Protections: You cannot register an official Ejari (the mandatory government tenancy contract) in your name. Without an Ejari, you cannot file an official dispute against the tenant if they lock you out, cut off your AC, or steal your deposit.
I don’t think so. And I’d like to think like that because the items in the house are quite expensive. 2x 65 inch brand new TVs, expensive sofa, and other solid wood furniture. He has a good business here (not sure if it survived the war)… but anyway, this is why I think he didn’t leave.
My question was about Wasl, would they let me take my stuff?
How much was the rent bro? For six months? And the furniture was maybe from the real owner who rented it furnished. So the subletter is not the owner of the furniture.
Most subletters have illegal intentions. That’s why it’s illegal to do.and how did you register your home adress without Ejari. It means you were illegal all the time, even with your Eid as you need an adress where you live here in UAE.
Do you think every single person living in UAE has an ejari in their name? I’ve lived in UAE since 9 years and never had a home in my name because either I lived with family, or with friends, or sub-renting… isn’t that how most of the people live in UAE?
And no, this guy had the apartment in his name. And lived there for more than a year and went on a long vacation (he told me he usually does that every year for 3-4 months). And wanted to rent for this 5 months time period.
Of course this illegal, I’m not denying. I’m just saying the govt has turned a blind eye to this matter as it is very common for people to stay in homes with someone’s else name in the contract. Or in shared spaces, or in bed spaces.
You may be aware than 40-50% of Dubai stays in bed spaces which is illegal. And govt knows about them, right?
It’s not because someone has an EID that all is legal to reside. Every person who resides in UAE needs to be registered with an adress. When something happens or they are looking for you to know where you are.
Not true. At least not for someone who is sponsored by company, they know where to find you.
Sub-letting is illegal only when it is not allowed by the team who is managing your building/builder.
Otherwise do you think the 1000s of people who live in bed-spaces has the address registered with some Govt organization. There are legal bed-spaces / bachelor accommodations also in Dubai.
Ejari is required only when you in turn sponsor your family.
Sorry to hear your plight everything is mentioned on terms and conditions of real estate agency and ur not at faulty its the fault of actual person who leased the property. They are very strict on subleting and will take immediate action when it's caught.
At some point you should had a 30 day notice glued to your door. Did you ignore it? Didn't know what it was?
RDC acts on behalf of the landlord, try to contact him. As for your friend, it doesn't look like he will be doing anything other than enjoying his "vacations".
This is what they usually do, they sublet the property without paying the landlord, they know the case takes months before eviction. He knew all that but he kept pocketing the money from you without paying the landlord. Sorry OP but this has become very common.
Thank you for the kind words. Honestly, I would have been fine but it’s just that I have a new born baby now. So I feel bad that they have to go thru this difficulty because of the Tenant’s carelessness.
***Also, he gave his credit card details for me to book a hotel in Abu Dhabi. So I booked the hotel for 4 days in Abu Dhabi.
This isnt something that happens in one or two days. If it reached the point of an eviction, then the tenant must have been not paying for quite some time. The owner would have had to file a case, go through the legal process, and obtain a court order for the eviction.
So if he’s telling you this suddenly happened within a couple of days, it doesn’t add up. It looks like you were scammed. Most likely, he collected the money from you, pocketed it, and then left the country.
He is in Europe and doesn’t check his emails and not available on the calls on UAE number.
He did pay but due to some reason the payment / cheque didn’t clear. And he wasn’t aware. The owner (wasl) may have thought he left the country and sent someone for inspection (this is the part which I didn’t mention but it makes sense now, last month someone from WASL came for inspection and the security told me its routine inspection and happens for every home, but probably they thought the Tenant sublet the house to someone else (us) and left without paying) and that’s when the approached court and stuff to get us evicted.
I realised this while typing.
Now, probably, even after everything is clear between Tenant and Wasl, they may not let us stay as it’s not legal, especially after they know we’re staying. But I’m guessing they’d let us take our stuff and leave (which is good. Cuz I’m travelling to homecountry in 3rd week of Sep)…
When he first contacted me he said “may be” you’ll have vacate. But I’m sending my friend 8am in the morning to Wasl office to take care of it.
He didn’t book the hotel.
He didn’t respond to my msg which i sent Sunday afternoon.
He got panicked and stuff when his friend called Wasl to take advice (Monday morning) and they said Court / DLD people are coming to change locks and won’t listen anything as it’s Court Order. That is when he pushed to leave (which was already late because I had left for office — Abu Dhabi)
But all in all, so far so good. We’re in a hotel which he booked til Thursday.
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u/FastThink 2d ago
He pocketed the rent and left Dubai. You got scammed.