Overcrowded villas: Municipality cracks whip

BY PMA RASHEED

The Gulf Today, 8 Feb 2010

A final warning has been issued by Dubai's civic authorities for complete evacuation of villas that are overcrowded with multiple families. Also, bachelors have been ordered to move out from areas where families reside, within a week's time.

Further enforcing the "One Villa One Family" campaign launched in 2008, Dubai Municipality (DM) announced on Sunday through a newspaper advertisement that residential premises housing multiple families should be vacated before Feb.14. This is in strict compliance with the civic body's building and public safety regulations.

According to the advert, the bachelors living in apartments or premises where families are occupied should also have to shift to non-family residential areas in order to avoid complications and security issues associated with mingling among families.

Further intensifying its actions against multiple-family villas, the Municipality said, "If the landlords or tenants fail to comply with the civic body's building and residential rules within the prescribed time-frame, water and power supply services to such premises will be disconnected and all future transactions with them would be stopped."

Earlier, the DM had confiscated power generators illegally used by tenants, whose electricity and water connections were severed by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa).

The Municipality also has planned to demolish residences that are caught in violation of the latest notice.

However, no official of the Dubai Municipality was available to comment further on the issue on Sunday.

"The latest notice has been issued in order to activate the role of community partnership in its efforts to maintain the Emirate of Dubai free of building violations and unplanned growth," said the advert.

It called upon the landlords and tenants who are violating building rules such as overcrowding families and bachelors that they should cooperate with these efforts before the one-week deadline.

Dubai Municipality had earlier revealed that about 14,000 villas were found in Dubai violating building rules since the launch of the "One Villa One Family" campaign.

"During the second phase of the campaign, civic inspectors detected many single villas shared by more than one family and they used diesel generators for electricity supply, in violation of the building rules," said a DM official earlier.

Omar Mohammed AbdulRahman, Head of Building Inspection Section in the Buildings Department at the DM, said that multiple families staying in one residential unit after illegally making alterations inside the building would not be tolerated as the Municipality focused on providing the highest standards of public safety and health measures.

"Accordingly, the municipality had notified the building owners as well real estate agencies not to rent out villas to bachelors and to allow only one family to live in single residential units," he added.