Some Discovery Gardens residents confused over mixed messages
Dubai: Residents at a Discovery Gardens building face confusion over being kept cool this summer, although Nakheel says for now they are safe.
\"We\'re so scared that they could turn the air-con off, how can they, in this heat? It is not fair on us tenants,\" said Sachin Bhandari, a tenant in Discovery Gardens Building No 39.
A note by Palm District Cooling (PDC), the chilled water supply provider, appeared on Saturday on its walls. It read that the supply to service the building\'s air conditioning would be cut off this Tuesday, due to the failure of the building owner to enter a legally binding contract with PDC.
\"We contacted our landlords to contact Nakheel and PDC but they are saying they are not getting any response. There is a lot of confusion and chaos,\" said Bhandari.
Similar notices to cut off chilled water supply have been spotted in some of the Shoreline Apartment buildings on The Palm Jumeirah as well.
A Nakheel spokesperson though reassured residents that chilled water will continue flowing in both instances. \"An error has been rectified. No utilities will be cut off.\"
Home owners have been paying their service, including chill, charges, directly to the Discovery Gardens building 39\'s owner. However, Bhandari said there is confusion over who the current owner is. \"My landlord told me he purchased the apartment from Tamweel and pays them directly the annual service fees, which should pass them on to Nakheel.\"
Bhandari laments that tenants remain on the receiving end not only regarding cooling but have to call third party providers for repairs.
The general confusion on who pays whom and who is responsible for what will become a thing of the past as home owners\' associations are formed and come into force over the next four months, said Kent O\'Brien, CEO and managing director, Strata Global. \"The strata law is very clear that the owner is the responsible party to pay the service providers.\"
The two scenarios are that either a developer is not getting all the money from the unit owners to pay the utility company, or unit owners pay the developer/owner but he is not passing the money on.
\"Once the home owners\' associations (HOAs) are formed this will make things much easier and there will be none of this cutting of service business,\" said O\'Brien.
The HOA will be responsible for collecting that will go straight into an HOA account, he explained. \"And in case of some of the individual owners not paying their parts the HOA can take the appropriate action as set out in the law and regulations,\" O\'Brien concluded.
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