Border Reiver

Now that we have the much threatened "Housing Fees" appearing on the DEWA bills I was wondering if anybody has actually been down to DEWA to "register" their tenancy agreement? If you have bought the place you are living in what are you supposed to do? It says on the bit of paper that came with this month's bill that the fees will be set at 5% of the rental value or "value estimated by Dubai Municipality." Does anyone have any idea how they go about estimating a rental value?

Singlemom

Haven't been to DEWA, not sure we're suposed to..will have to check it out

I have a question reagrding rent, in order to have a decent life and save money (aren't we here for that!), what's the max proportion of ones salary should go for rent? Any suggestions? pleeeaaasseee

Nabs

it depends on what the salary is...

if someone earns a salary of 5000aed then he'd better pay a max of 1000 for rent ie live in Ajman

if someone earns 50000aed, even if he spends 50% of his salary on rent, he is still ok

Just a theory

Face81

I think that the estimates have more to do with your electricity/water consumption patterns over the year. They come in to check actual meter readings every other month and 'estimate' your bill for the remaining months.

I know it sounds a little unfair, but thats DEWA for u.

Border Reiver

Yes, I know how they work out the water and electricity bit but I was asking about the "Housing Fees" that have just appeared as an extra line on the bill- this is the 5% municipality tax on rent that hardly anybody ever paid before so they have decided to add it to the DEWA bills.

Singlemom

Thanks nabs

PartyGirl

I called them yesterday to find out what the Housing Fee was... being new to Dubai we didn't know that this was threatened. As our fee was exactly 5% of our monthly rent, we just assumed that the landlord told them when he transferred the DEWA account from himself to us...

Border Reiver

So I take it you didn't have to go down to DEWA with your tenancy agreement then, and they are just automatically adding it to your bill? My next question is how do they "estimate" the rental value of your property if you have bought it and therefore have no tenancy agreement? Anybody got experience of this?

Btw, welcome to the board (and to Dubai) PartyGirl. Everybody is crazy here, as you may have noticed. Must be the heat.

Truth Speak

This is a pretty sore point at the mo. Alot of companies(mine included) used to have to pay the MTax and then it'd be deducted from our salary on a monthly basis. Anyway, recently moved and the DEWA bill now includes M Tax and its also been paid by the company. The municipality say, oh yeh, thats right you've paid twice. But you'r not getting the cash back!!

Nice people.....lots of money to loose.........

Jellybean

What's loose

Truth Speak

That would be telling