Dubai Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) has issued directives that impact heavily on hotel owners and operators in mixed-use and multi-owned Dubai properties.
But reactions to the JOP (Jointly Owned Property) Law no.27 of 2007, (an attempt to give different owners a fair and equal degree of control over the management and administration of common facilities), have been mixed.
Faran general manager Jihad Hazzan, who represents owners of hotels in Dubai, said the new law was “good for the emirate and has long been needed”.
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“The government has done a lot and they are taking best practice from other countries, but we have to be patient as it’s a learning curve.”
However, another hotel owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had doubts about how RERA was going to manage so many potential disputes as it retains the power to reject any agreement that it feels unfairly favours an owner.
“They already have so many disputes going on, what is going to happen when owner associations disagree and you have one owner who doesn’t care and another who wants the highest of standards?” he said.
“It’s the right direction, but there are so many questions and potential problems I fear it will be years until it becomes a workable system.”
Despite this, associate at law firm Hadef & Partners Brent Baldwin said the days of developers “riding roughshod over owners” was over.
“There have been complaints about a lack of transparency surrounding service charges. Those days are gone and owners are going to find they have much greater control over the way their buildings are operated,” he said.
“Now is the time” for owners and operators to thrash out how projects should be managed as the logistics of making changes could be more difficult later on, warned Baldwin.
“There is a limited time to bring things into compliance. There will be a point when the owners association takes over the building’s management,” he stressed.
“If a hotel has been enjoying a relationship with the developer, running things in a way to suit the hotel, they may find themselves hampered by all these other owners having greater control.
“Everyone should be thinking about this now,” added Baldwin.
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