All expat tenants in Dubai to now pay housing fee

9 years ago | Posted in: Dubai Property, MENA, UAE, World | 1532 Views

Dubai—All expat occupants of rented and freehold residential properties in Dubai are now being charged the housing fee, with the system of levying civic charges through utility bills covering all areas in the emirate by the end of 2014.

This means all expat tenants are now charged a five percent of the rent of their housing units and owners of freehold residential properties are charged five percent of the rental value of their property as per the rental index of their areas issued by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera).

It has been four years since the Dubai Municipality started collecting housing fee for all general civic services it is providing through the utility bills from the Dubai Electricity Water and Authority (Dewa).

“We have covered all residential areas in Dubai now. It was done by the end of 2014,” the Head of Marketing and Housing Fees Unit in DM’s Finance Department, Abdulla Hashim AbdulGhafoor, told Khaleej Times.

“But still a few accounts here and there are not reflecting in the system. So every month Dewa is checking the system and including the units that are missed,” he said, estimating a billing error of one or two in every 1000 housing units billed.

Following this, he said, the municipality has stopped the registration of housing fee through its website. “Now that it is automatically updated in the system through Dewa bills, people don’t have to register anymore.”

“All existing customers who were not receiving bills have been billed by default. When somebody is moving into a new home or shifting from one to another, they will see their housing fee billed from their first Dewa bill itself as Dewa officials are uploading the rental value also along with other details for all the accounts.”

If there is a change in the rental value of a housing unit, whether a decrease or an increase, occupants can get it corrected at Al Twar and Al Manara centres of the municipality… see more

source: khaleejtimes

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