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Panel settles more than 300 rent dispute cases

AJMAN — The newly formed Ajman Rent Dispute Committee has settled around 320 pending cases in a short span of time.

This follows the instructions of Shaikh Rashid bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of Ajman Department of Municipality and Planning (ADMP), to expedite the rent dispute cases.

The committee receives between 20 and 30 complaints every day, with most of the cases being filed by tenants protesting what they allege “undue” rent hikes by landlords.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Othman Al Shawarib, Member of the Committee, admitted some of the landlords were not abiding by the three-year rent cap rule issued by the Amiri Decree in Ajman.

Othman explained that as per the Decree, landlords can increase rents only after three years from the date of the lease contract, or from the date of last increase in rent.

After the three-year period too, landlords have to fulfil two conditions to increase rents: first, they should send a written notification to the tenant at least three months before the expiry of the contract, and second, the increase should not exceed 20 per cent of the value of the current rent.

An increase of over 20 per cent in the rent shall be applicable in case the landlords make expensive improvements and maintenance and state other economic justifications.

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