No Flat, No Visa. How True Is It?

The Abu Dhabi authorities have decreed that anyone wishing to renew their residence visa MUST provide either:

- An attested contract pertaining to a lease on a property, either in their own name, or in the name of their sponsor; or,

- A recent ADDC bill, in their own name.

The purpose of this exercise is to dissuade landlords from partitioning villas and apartments into smaller units, i.e. splitting a villa suitable for 1 family into separate units where for example 5-6 people would live.

Abu Dhabi Municipality are currently investigating many such properties within the city and where the property is found to have been partitioned illegally, the landlord is issued with a notice and the tenants are generally given 2 months to vacate.

There is rarely any redress and unless formal legal action is taken through the court, the tenant will not be refunded the rent which they have already paid.

The landlord (invariably an Emirati) usually ends up with a small fine and is required to put the property back to it's previously unpartitioned state.

It's all very unfair and don't come whinging to me about it, but since when have the Emiratis been anything other than crooks, gangsters and liars?

Buyer beware....I know of several people already in Khalifa City who have been evicted as a result of this.