Pay housing fee even if your property is vacant

If your apartment or house is empty, you still have to pay the five per cent Dubai Municipality (DM) housing fee as long as you have a Dewa connection.

And the municipality will not tolerate residents cheating it by registering lower rents than those prevailing in the market for a specific area. If anyone tries to do that the municipality will use the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera) rent index to set up the new rent.

Abdulla Hashim Abdulghafoor, Head of Housing and Marketing Fees at the Dubai Municipality, told Emirates 24|7 that a Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) connection is the only requirement for the municipality to charge housing fee.

"Whether an apartment is rented out or remains vacant, one still has to pay the housing fee as long as he has a Dewa connection. There is no exemption. We are slowly covering all the areas - freehold and non-freehold - as per Dewa's billing cycle," he added.

Notices are being served to residents by Dewa since May and those failing to register on the Dubai Municipality website after receiving the final (second) notice will be charged housing fee according to the Rera index.

"We will serve the residents with two notices and those who fail to register within that time span will be charged housing fee as per the Rera index. They will have no chance to complain if they are charged higher."

If a rental contract registered on Dubai Municipality website falls far below the minimum rent stipulated by the Rera index, then the municipality will charge the housing fee on the basis of minimum Rera rent for the specific community.

"I personally check all the contracts... if we see that someone is trying to cheat us then we will not accept it. We will charge him as per the Rera index," said Abdulghafoor.

Freehold property owners, who were charged 0.5 per cent of their purchase price as housing fee, are now being charged at five per cent per annum using the Rera rent index for a particular community. Leasehold occupants (tenants) will continue to pay five per cent of the annual rent as housing fee.

Abdulghafoor said priority is to get the residents registered who still are not being charged the housing fee.

"Our target is to get the around 300,000 unit occupants to pay. Whether you are staying in a freehold or non-freehold area is not our concern, you have to pay for infrastructure being used across Dubai," he added.

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