DEWA housing fees
 

Anybody ever heard of a company making a random deduction from your salary to cover DEWA housing fees that they claim they have to pay to the government? The fee taken bears no relation to the individual's rent and is taken if your name is not on the DEWA bill. So to be clear, if the bill is in anyone else's name (including your wife or father etc) then you are charged a fee.
Ever heard of this?
CH

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

you thinking of setting up your own company...

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

Nope - just been told that the missing 2k from my salary is because my name is not on the DEWA bill.
crazy

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

I thought everyone has to pay Housing Fees to DM (as part of the DEWA bill)? I have been paying them for a few years, I think they were first introduced in early 2006. Approx 5% of the rental value/amount of a property.

The amount gets added to the DEWA bill every month, and is payable with the bill, in fact is included in it. My DEWA bills were in the name of my employer, but I settled each bill myself. My employer did give me a refund of the housing fees component of the bill - they said they would be able to claim it back from DM or something...to be honest, I didn't ask many questions, just collected the reimbursements! :)

In your case, do you see Housing Fees on your monthly DEWA bill? If so, who pays those fees, you or your employer? If the employer has been paying the fees and settling your DEWA bills on your behalf, then maybe they could be entitled to make deductions from your salary?

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

Not everyone has to pay DEWA housing fees. Only on newish properties I believe.

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

You must be right, my flat was new when we moved in. I did have colleagues paying the fees too who were not in bran-new properties, but probably 'new-ish'....

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

false. All expats (is it non GCC?) people renting in Dubai are legally obliged to pay it.

Thats why RERA and DM are so keen to get everyones rent contract registered.

If they do no know what rent you are paying, then DM via DEWA, cannot charge the fee

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

I never registered mine though, nor did the other people I know who have to pay Housing Fees. Presumably the landlords (large companies) did the registrations as part of their normal working practice. Wouldn't be surprised if there is an obligation on LL to register contracts then, if that's how DM collects the fees.

To be honest, the amount isn't that outrageous. On a complete tangent...the average Council Tax I paid in the UK was around 10% of the rental value of the property (yes I know that's not how it is calculated, but it always worked out in that range, +/- 2%) - and the only Council services I ever used (and which are worth using...the rest is all 'diversity crap') were the libraries and the rubbish collection. The former were generally very good, the latter completely erm.. rubbish! Refuse collected just once a week on a certain day, can only be certain size, must be sorted by the householder, they would not collect certain items, bla bla bla. Here, I pay 5% (ie half of the UK cost), get no libraries but at least get all household rubbish collected everyday...no questions asked :)


Of course, the above 'argument' falls flat on its face if DM isn't responsible for rubbish collection :)

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

The rent contracts will have been presented for the dewa contract, hence they have the information required to bill..

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

thanks for the input, housing fees are 5% of rent payable on DEWA bill by everyone except those lucky enough to have slipped through the net so far. This is a tax, the merits of which can debated another time.

in this case, you can have proof of payment of your housing fees for your address but if the bill is not in your name then the firm deduct a fixed amount (unrelated to your rent) from salary.

Any similar experiences?

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

hang on, we have a 'thread control freak'..

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

twunt

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

You're right.....I did my DEWA thingee so long ago, had forgotten the process.

So when there's money involved, the various govt. depts and bureaucracies do share information in a seamless and efficient way... wonderful!

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

oooh go on call me something else and scare me..

a real shame that about your dewa bill, I can see it has reeeaaally devastated you..

Re: DEWA housing fees
 

you're boring the hell out of me - settle down and add something useful at least 10% of the time.