Chilly times for Palm Residents

There is a lot of concern about air conditioning costs at the moment and i thought i would simply copy and paste the article I found in Emirates 24/7.

Have a read of the article below and then you will see a reaction from one of our team, Steve. Steve is our Tiara and Oceana specialist and, as some of you will know , very knowledgeable and thorough. His response to the problem sheds a clear light on the problem


Chiller water supply to luxury project discontinued
Residents of Tiara Residence claim they should be charged on usage basis rather than on area basis.
By
Parag Deulgaonkar
Published Monday, July 05, 2010

Tiara Residence is located on the main trunk of Palm Jumeirah. It comprises seven 15-storey towers with sea view apartments ranging from one bedroom apartments at 1,309 square feet to 5,500 square foot penthouses at the top of each building. (EB FILE)
Chiller water connection in some apartments of Tiara Residence, a luxury development on Palm Jumeriah, has been discontinued for the past six days, residents said. Zabeel Investments, however, emphasises it was no longer willing to subsidize the bills of those few who are taking free chilled water from the development.
According to final notice served on residents, seen by Emirates Business, Zabeel Properties, the developer of the project, said: “Your chilled water account has not been settled to date following Real Estate Regulatory Agency’s (Rera) agreed settlement. Chiller water supply will be disconnected on June 29, until payment is made and registration is completed.”
As per an earlier notice, sent on May 19, the developer told residents to settle their outstanding bill for the period November 2009 to April 2010 within seven days from the notice being served. Residents were also asked to sign up to an end user agreement with Tiara for the provisioning of chilled water and the activation of the individual apartment meter for consumption going forward.
Shadi Joweihan, an owner of a one-bedroom apartment, said he is not against paying every cent he owes to the developer, but wants more clarity and transparency in dealings. He called for residents being charged on usage basis rather than on area basis.
Joweihan said he has foot a bill of Dh1,200 per month for chiller charges apart from the service charges, which he has paid for a year upfront.
“We are not against paying, but we want them to calibrate the metres. We also want them to set up owners association and pass on the responsibilities to it.”
Asked by chilled water supply was discontinued despite Rera’s order, Zabeel Investments spokesperson said that during the meeting with the Rera CEO it was agreed by all parties that residents needed to register their service for chilled water in order to continue receiving it, much like registration for any utility, such as water, electricity, etc.
“We will no longer subsidize the bills of those few residents who are taking free chilled water from the development and have refused to set up their chilled water accounts,” she added.
According to the spokesperson, since February 2010 residents have received monthly notifications to set up their metres and pay the outstanding amounts.
“Based on a Rera approved notification, the residents were again advised to register and pay for their services via written communication on May 19, giving a deadline of May 26. The few remaining residents who did not heed this notice were then sent a final notice on June 24, the same was copied to Rera for their notification, at which time residents were given a final five day deadline to register and pay outstanding costs dating to the time of apartment handover.”
Ludmila Yamalova, an owner of a three-bedroom apartment, said: “About a month back, they had disconnected the supply, but it was connected after Rera interfered. They sent us a final notice on June 24, saying they would disconnect chilled water supply from June 29. It was a general notice and was not addressed to individuals.”
She said she was paying a service fee of Dh70,000 per year and believed it included the chiller charges as well.
According to Zabeel, it was stated in the sales and purchase agreement that chilled water would be a separate charge from that of the community fees, which the owners agreed to at the time of purchase. The chiller fees are based on size of the individual units and the use by the owner/resident.
“We have even established a dedicated email, so that residents with questions or concerns can get correct and qualified advice on their chilled water consumption.”
To a query on whether the company was working to settle the issue amicably, the spokesperson added: “The charges are based on actual rates and once metres are activated, charges can be tracked by individual units on a monthly basis. We employ the services of a third party to oversee the collection of fees for this service, and the fees paid by the resident are as stated on the monthly bills, with all monies being transferred directly to Palm District Cooling, based on their charges.”
Another point of contention raised by residents was non-formation of interim owners association (IOA), charges which the developer has refuted.
“We expected the IOA to be formed within a month after we met Rera officials in May. But there has been no word about it,” Yamalova added.
Zabeel said it is in the final process of establishing the interim owners association, which will be ready to meet the deadline set by Rera.
“All duties and responsibilities will be duly handed over at that time. For now we are actually well ahead in our implementation for the established of Home Owners Association as part of the rules and regulations for the Jointly Owned Property Declaration, which in light of being a mixed use development, brings its own set of challenges. We welcome the handover to the home owners, so that they can be responsible to one another for creating a stronger Tiara Residence community,” the spokesperson added.

Steve's Response:


We know about this though don’t we?

The last dregs of residents in dispute went to RERA last month and came back thinking they had won a case… but in their meeting with RERA, although it was agreed AC would go back on, it was also agreed they would pay their bills. Some paid their bills but a few of the few didn’t, so Zabeel cut them off again about 10 days or so ago and this is where they are all at.

It’s mostly down to
no one really feeling comfortable with the capacity charge – or understanding it (but that’s a PDC and Palm wide issue)
pre Feb bills being split between all the apartments because the meters were not turned on before them (so some people were perhaps not in Dubai for many months but got a bill from when they moved in to when the meters were turned on. Zabeel were getting one bill from PDC because PDC refused to connect or recognise the meters because they would rather send 1 bill to Zabeel. SO Zabeel had a 1m to 2m per month bill that needed splitting. They took out common usage then split per apartment based on square foot. Will not work for everyone and the communication during the no meter period was non existent so no one knew it was coming, but to be fair to Zabeel, the AC was getting used and no one was paying. Some gesture toward the payment by Zabeel would have been better received but, as I say, there was never going to be a 1 size fits all solution)
There is no access or transparency or clarity regarding the individual meters for each apartment. People are suspicious that Zabeel are on the fiddle or they are top slicing. Zabeel say all the money is going straight to PDC. This surely can be proven and confirmed by Zabeel if it is true – I would imagine it is true but, it is Dubai , so suspicions will be there until proven innocent!

There are some valid issues that will only ever have been settled by compromise (such as 2 above) but generally – there is nothing a good talk, transparency and independent controlled access to the meter couldn’t overcome in my view.

Mark Says:

There you have it!!! Anybody that says E & T are not specialists on the Palm are deranged. We are the biggest managers of property on the Palm and do everything we can to make sure that our customers are upto date with all the antics and antivities..

Costa v Starbucks

Two cups of coffee in the space of an hour and two totally different views of Dubai.

So, Monday 10 am and I have arranged to meet an investor who I have been chatting on and off with for the past 5 years. I generally prefer Starbucks to Costa so we met at JBR for a change from my usual surroundings.

As we stood in line, waiting to order, I politely asked about the kids with every intent of doing a bit of 'oohing' and 'aahing' about the snowfall in the UK. Not necessary as we were straight into the property game quicker than it takes Emaar to change a name on a Tower.

Its like this Mark . I have sat it out for years and Dubai has been good to me but I just don't feel comfortable anymore with any investment outside of the Palm Jumeirah. Jebel Ali in my opinion is a long long way off ,if ever, and I want out. Quite frankly if it was my development company that owned it, he said, I would dump it.

Slurping away at my piping hot skinny latte I bought a bit of time and feigned burnt lips and wiped away the froth from the side of my mouth whilst I thought of an answer

With his eyes bearing down on me he was only expecting one answer . 'You're right the place is never going to get built and you should run for the hills with 50% of the original price in your back pocket.'

It was early and I really didn't feel like the challenge so I shrugged and said 'we don't call it Wobbly Jelly for nothing'.
I honestly haven't got a clue what will happen but one thing for sure is that there is a very large piece of reclaimed land in Jebel Ali waiting to be developed.

After dodging the bullets my latte had cooled down to a temperature where I could gulp rather than slurp so I made my pleasantries and left. I was now Costa bound on the Palm for another potential lecture in how the world is doomed.

Skinny Cappucino please - who am I kidding? the belt is a full stretch since Xmas. We settled down with our respective drinks and I couldn't beleive my ears. 'Mark, I want to buy in Jebel Ali. I know its a risk and information is limited but you know there is a big piece of reclaimed land out there and one day it will get developed. I want in now'. Not exactly deja vu but i thought someone had spiked my drink.

No point in asking this guy about his kids then!!

This is what it is like at the moment. Everybody has a view on the state of the economy and in this emerging market we call Dubai there are a hell of alot of risk takers living here. For sure there are going to be some more tears but at the same time there are going to be some seriously happy people.

I still prefer Starbucks as a venue but for a coffee with a kick I highly recommend a trip to Costa Coffee on the Palm where I think Nakheel are sponsoring the extra shots.

Palm Market News

Palm Jumeirah:

This week has seen some reasonable activity on Palm Jumeirah. Both Sales and Lettings have been active and most agents are seeing a pick up.

The Sales department have seen viewings on Shorelines, and the villas. There are requests for Tiara but this is probably just 'laminate floor treading' at this stage. Tiara is lovely but more likely to perform better in the lettings department until Title Deeds are available.
Specifically, we have had offers on Signature Villas form our Russian friends. Smart Russians at that. They sold their Signature villa last year for $6m and are looking to buy back in at $3m. They are going to have to pay closer to $4m for what they want but still shows that 2008/2009 was a good time for some.
M frond low number Garden Home has sold this week for 6.5m AED and Canal Cove 4 bed for 4.5m AED ( take that fork out of your Thigh SC )
The prices aren't making the sellers jump for joy but there is activity and please remember that there is still not a mortgage in sight. When there is finance expect a nice little bounce.

The Lettings Department is very busy with increased viewings. I don't think there are many new tenants floating around as most people are looking to upgrade or get a better rate than they are currently paying. Landlords who already have a tenant should be careful not to push the rates on renewal as the tenants have much more choice and will simply leave.
Tiaras are renting for 130k per annum for a 1 bed with 3 beds touching 240/250k pa. Gardens homes are not much more than 300k p.a with Signatures now less than 500k p.a
Shorelines are doing quite well as tenants enjoy the restaurants and amenities these apartments offer with less than i thought hopping over to Tiara. Shorelines are still flavour of the month with 1 bed sea views reaching 130k p.a .

Over in Palm Jebel Ali it looks like Nakheel are about to announce another delay. They told me last week to expect a very very long delay. Not sure if this means 2 years or 5 but for sure some of you are going to be very upset.

Finally, I am going to be an anorak this week and try out the Palm Monorail. There are only 2 stops at the base of the Palm and Atlantis right now. They are probably thinking of a new name fot the Trump station when it opens. It is 25 dhs round trip, and i will get a 30 dhs coffee at Atlantis to make it worth while. In these times of financial stress I hope you all appreciate this investment I am making for you.