Verification of the agent?

[alamode]

Hi,

Recently ive been looking at 1 BR and 2 BR apartments for rent in abu dhabi. We recently found a place we liked. The agent asked us to give a deposit which we paid since we liked the place. Now we are having a few doubts as to the credentials of this agent since the card that he provide us, the website of the real estate company doesnt open and i cannot find that real estate agent online. I did find one real estate company with the same name but the logos were different so we are now a little bit suspicious about this guy.

Anyway, is there any regulatory authority in abu dhabi where we can verify the credentials of this agent and this real estate company? I dont want to name the company or agent name here since maybe we are just being paranoid and maybe he's legit. Anyway do advice us on how we can verify this agent and his company.

 

[Mark007]

Hi there, did you manage to solve this? if not let me know and I will try to offer some advice on this.

 

[alamode]

Hi there, did you manage to solve this? if not let me know and I will try to offer some advice on this.

Hi mark. No i wasn't able to solve this but now i am stuck in some bigger problem. My whole advance annual rent cheques are being held by a company due to some reasons. Can you please pm me your contact details so i can discuss this with you? Im assuming you know alot more about UAE then i do since i just moved here.

 

[Mark007]

Hi mark. No i wasn't able to solve this but now i am stuck in some bigger problem. My whole advance annual rent cheques are being held by a company due to some reasons. Can you please pm me your contact details so i can discuss this with you? Im assuming you know alot more about UAE then i do since i just moved here.

Hi, I dont think I can send PM's yet as not "verified" i will try again and if not i will speak to a moderator to contact

 

[alamode]

Hi, I dont think I can send PM's yet as not "verified" i will try again and if not i will speak to a moderator to contact

Mark, the issue i am facing is that an agent showed me a place and said this place bachelors are allowed. We took the quotation and preprepared cheques fron our company. When we went for contract signing the owner told us this place is for families only. We said yes we will bring family but after 6-7 months. The owner took the cheques and gave us receipts and told us to come Tommorow for contract signing. We went home and discussed and since we are bachelors and we didn't want to risk taking a family only apartment we went to the owners office and said that we are bachelors and we may bring our families after 5-6 months but thats not confirmed.. Can be 6 months can be 8 months. Anyway they told us that no this place is for family only and without family we can't give you this place. We said ok then return us our cheques we dont want this place if you are not allowing bachelors. But the company is not returning our cheques and saying that you have to wait until they find a new tenant and when they do they will deduct rent uptil that date from our cheques. :/.. Any advice what to do? Is this legal? We didnt sign anything!

 

[Mark007]

This is 100% not legal.

If you have signed a contract - you should pay and you get they key

If you have not signed you should be given your cheques back immediately

There is no community rules in Dubai for families or bachelors it is preference from the owner not a pre-requisite from an owners association or governing body.

What i would recommend is to do the following -

Request the agents Broker card - this is a legal requirement to broker the deal
Request the companies Trade License
Request the companies management contact person

With this information you should speak with any representative at RERA. RERA are super helpful with this type of thing and will ensure you get your cheques back as failure for them to present them back can result in a 50k fine to the broker.

You have done nothing wrong here and should do the above straight away

Its likely that an agent acting like this does not have a RERA card and failure to present one is not uncommon, if this is the case just take correspondence along with receipts of payment to RERA and you will be fine.

Keep me posted with how you get on

Mark

 

[alamode]

Problem is, im not in dubai.. Im in abu dhabi.. Im not sure what regulatory body governs these issues. Do you know who should i go to for abu dhabi?

 

[Mark007]

Ah I just saw that its Abu Dhabi not Dubai. Let me do some research and i will come back to you asap.

 

[alamode]

Thanks a ton!

 

[Mark007]

Ok, its a tricky one this but you can most definitely get your cheques back.

As there is no RERA you are to complete the above steps as if RERA was in place but your contact should be Abu Dhabi Municipality and Abu dhabi Police.

It may be a little longer process but this is not ok and will be treated as if it is theft if not dealt with correctly by the agent.

Good luck

 

[alamode]

Thanks. Ill take advice from my company first then go to police if they give the go ahead since the cheques are issued by my company. They arent my personal cheques. Anyway thanks!!

 

[Alwasol2020]

Unfortunatly there is still no RERA in AD , you should approach AD muncipality site and check for the right Person To call for this issue