lullabelle

I've just read that. I'm seriously pissed off, and since my cheques are all paid to Edwards and Towers I'm taking all my complaints to them.

Theres no point living there without access to the facilities - especially for my kids. And I really can't see how my landlord is going to pay that much in one go.

Dean - the lists are on the notice board in each reception. My building has at least three on each floor. Six flats (out of 8) on my floor have service charge arrears. Most of them are extreme.

I'd love to get a lawyer's perspective - my tenancy agreement actually refers to the use of the clubhouse. So I've paid my rent in good faith but I'm being shafted. Surely that is a breach of contract?

My contract is up in July. ****ing July. I'm tempted to say - fine, you lied, we're shafted, lets part with no money owing either side, including the deposit. But I REALLY plan to go home in July and cant face moving somewhere for only seven months.

Bastards. I was planning to take video of my kids crying next to the security guards barring entry to the beach and sending it to all the big bods at Nakheel, on the hour, every hour. But I'd probably get arrested and deported.

Hello.Kitty

strictly speaking, if it's actually written in your contract and your LL is, by action or inaction, not providing you with the full facilities described, then s/he is in breach and the contract is considered terminated. Most tenancy contracts are so loose, they often don't actually state the collective facilities or car parking spaces. The breach kind of becomes academic because with the rent in advance system, they have you over a barrel, but strictly speaking...

When we got a lovely letter under our door "urging" us to get our LL to pay up, we said exactly the above to our agents and suddenly it was paid. I don't think he was heavily in arrears though. Have to chuckle at the fact the Management Company must have only got an email address as contact details of the owners.

Anyhow, back to the contract. Try getting some kind of deduction of rent. The agents will know that the prospects of getting fresh tenants to sign up to these flats is becoming slimmer as word of this mess gets out - which it is. LL's, well, the ones with any kind of business sense, should also start feeling a tad grateful to have some kind of rent coming in, so I would really try the "I've paid X for use of the flat and facilities, so either you fork out so that I can make full use of them as per the contract or, as a favour to you, since you are in breach, we revise the rent to Y for the remainder of the tenancy."

lullabelle

Thanks Hello Kitty.

I checked the list again. Every floor has at least EIGHT (out of 12 flats, ten flats on my floor) service charge defaulters. It's crazy. Crazy that they thought they couldn't pay, crazy that nakheel are so shortsighted and deluded.

Oh, what was that? Ahhh yes. That was the noise of adjacent properties plunging in value. At this rate the Dean could nab a couple of penthouses and knock a wall through.

Bahtatboy

You've been back in UK too long. That just smacks of logic, pragmatism and fairness. This isn't the Home Counties, you know.

Hello.Kitty

lol - 72 hours?!

That's why I put in the "strictly speaking" caveat... because no one ever does. Saying that, we pulled the same stunt with our LL when our building threatened to cut access to pools and parking and he paid up.
We also got a bit of a deal when the rents crashed back in 2009 - we were locked in to an extortionate rent and served notice when we realised that we'd be better off getting out. This unfortunately put our then LL in a bit of an embarrassing position because he found himself having to reimburse a portion of rent... but he'd gone and spent it all long ago so didn't have the cash to do so. We settled by agreeing to stay (and save his face in front of RERA) when he offered 2 months for free, which translated into a nice fat cheque at the end of the tenancy.

Depends on how reasonable your LL is...

ha
ha
ha
[cough]
yeah.

The Dean

How did you get a "nice fat cheque"? Surely he just extended the contract to 14 months?

Hello.Kitty

no, because he was saying "just stay another 2 months beyond the current agreement" and I, having had the crash course in "Trust in the Middle East", went, er, no, because should he feel like it he could, under contract, try to claim the 2 months extra rent at the rate stated in the contract - should he turn around and say he'd never agreed to such an extension, we would have overstayed and wouldn't have a leg to stand on. He was, however, a decent chap and gave us the cheque in lieu.

... and that was that.

I have to say, also that it's well worth getting a change to the notice period written into the contract. We got a "redundancy clause" written in, which in the event of redundancy, we would give only one month's notice and would face no penalty (currently 2 months' rent)... very handy thing to have, as it turned out.

The Dean

I've got a redundancy clause as well, but it requires me to leave the country (i.e. if I find another job here, I can afford to carry on paying and I'll still need the apartment, etc, etc...........)

Hello.Kitty

with us it was just The Letter as proof, although of course you do have to hedge your bets as to whether you're actually leaving or not.

I was posting on EW actually about the matter of extra clauses and adding one in underlining that if facilities or services are cut off due to non-payment of the service charge by the LL, then the tenant has the right to renegotiate or to serve 1 months notice without penalty.