Abu Dhabi: More than 50 families in Abu Dhabi have been left without water and electricity supply in their homes after the real estate company to which the homes were leased has failed to pay the municipality fees.
The water and electricity supply was cut off to the villa compound at the start of February, and making matters more complicated, tenants have been handed an eviction notice from the court because of the failure in paying the fees.
All members of the real estate company, Acquire Real Estate Broker’s, management have left the country.
“We are living in a very difficult situation with no power and water. I have a family with two young children and it is very challenging to get through day after day,” said Mubeen Javed, a Pakistani tenant.
“I have been living here for four years with no issue, and suddenly, at the end of January, we all received the eviction notice. Subsequently, the power and water supply was discontinued. The reason behind this, as we found out, was that the real estate company had not paid the electricity and water bills,” he added.
“I paid Dh50,000 for one year, and as per the contract, the real estate company would be responsible for paying the electricity and water bills,” he said.
Javed said he and other tenants tried to contact the management of the real estate company several times to no avail.
“When we found out about the situation, we went to the police station to inform them, and discovered that the people behind the real estate company had left the country. We called the main office [of the real estate company] but nobody answers the phone, and all their mobile numbers have been switched off.”
Saeed Ebrahim, an Egyptian tenant, said by the turn of events. “I renewed my tenancy contract for Dh31,000 at the turn of the year. I was very happy with my situation, everything was okay, and then suddenly one day we got the notice from the court asking us to move out, and the electricity and water supply was cut off,” he said.
Ebrahim said on the night after the eviction order was received, one of the real estate agents visited the compound and assured the tenants that everything would be “okay”. “He told us not to worry and that he would sort everything out. We all calmed down and thought everything would be okay. A few days later, we received another eviction notice from the court.
“I called the real estate agent to check what was happening, but unfortunately, there was no answer. I found out that he had left the country,” he added.
The tenants are currently waiting to hear the court’s verdict on their situation, hoping for clemency so that they could continue to stay there.
Gulf News tried to contact the real estate company, but repeated calls to its head office were unanswered. The real estate company’s office, which is based out of Dubai, has also been vacated, Gulf News has learnt.
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