Al Tamimi & Company, in conjunction with the Dubai Land Department provided an Update on Property Laws & Regulations in Dubai on 27 January 2009 at the Godolphin Ballroom, Emirates Towers.

The well attended event attracted journalists, lawyers, property developers and others in the property industry from the region posing numerous questions for the expert panel to answer.

Emad Eldin Farouq, Senior Legal Advisor at the Dubai Land Department opened his presentation by discussing Law 13 of 2008 Regulating the Interim Register and highlighting its legislative importance. The Law introduced the Real Estate Register, which provided investors with added peace of mind. Emad went on to explain the Developers' obligations under Law 13 of 2008 relating to commencing construction of a project, sales off plan and fees payable. He also discussed Unit Area Variations and explained that if a unit turns out to be larger on completion, the developer may not claim the difference in value and if the unit turns out to be smaller then the developer must compensate the purchaser for the difference unless it is marginal in which case the developer would not be required to compensate the purchaser for the shortfall in the area. Emad closed his presentation by discussing the role of Dubai Land Department.

Mohammad Kawasmi, Senior Associate at Al Tamimi & Company addressed the recent changes including the "2009 Cap Decree" and Amendments to the Landlord & Tenant Law. He explained that there would be no rent increase in 2009, if the rent in 2008 was equal to or 25% or less below the average similar rent, as set out by the RERA rent index which was attached to the new decree. He added, however, that RERA were also updating the Index and that the new decree and Amendments to the Landlord & Tenant Law have not yet been published in the Gazette and are therefore still in draft form and not yet implemented by the Rents Committee.

Lisa Dale, Partner and Head of the Property Department at Al Tamimi & Company provided a general overview of some of the recent laws published and explained how the Mortgage Law covers properties registered on both the Interim Real Estate Register and the Real Estate Register and discussed how default notices are handled, with the whole process taking a maximum of 4 months. She also referred to the regulation of developers and highlighted that "A Developer shall be cancelled from the Register... if he does not commence construction within 6 months of the date he was granted approval to sell off plan without an acceptable excuse..."

Lisa mentioned two new laws are in the pipeline which will bring further protection to investors and end-users to Dubai's off-plan property market. The first law shall provide that developers must own the land and have completed at least 20 per cent of construction before they can request consent from RERA to sell off plan. The second law says the payment plan must be linked to construction milestones and maximum of 20 per cent of the property price can be taken up front as a deposit. Lisa commented that both laws are currently in draft form but are expected to be published soon.

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