مواطنون يطلبون «عقداً موحداً» وإشرافاً رسمياً لتفادي مشكلات بناء «منزل العمر»

Citizens who experienced problems with contractors during the construction of their homes demanded the implementation of procedures that guarantee the rights of all parties and provide quick solutions in the event that contractors do not adhere to delivery on the specified dates, or do not adhere to the specifications documented in the contract, and other practices that prevent the owner from moving to the old home in a timely manner. .

They told “Emirates Today” that it is necessary to have an official body that guides the citizen to the path that guarantees his legal rights, and imposes a unified contract for building citizens’ homes, because many young owners do not have the necessary legal awareness to draft these contracts, and they fall into the trap of contractors who protect themselves in the first place. The first, in addition to their financial inability to appoint a lawyer or resort to the judiciary, prolongs disputes and freezes construction work for periods of up to years in some cases.

Meanwhile, the real estate expert and honorary board member of the governmental “Villa Platform,” Muhammad Hareb, revealed that many young citizens intending to build have no knowledge of this governmental platform that mainly specializes in bearing this complex responsibility instead of being borne by citizens who own residential lands. They want to build a home of a lifetime, pointing out that there is a fundamental problem behind repeated disputes between owners and contractors, which is that some people tend to build overly luxurious homes that do not fit their budgets, and then projects are stalled due to their inability to pay in later stages.

The director of a contracting company, Mustafa Ismail Al-Zarouni, said that the problem boils down to some people’s lack of familiarity with the mechanisms for selecting the consultant and contractor, in addition to other problems that may be caused by the owner. Al-Zarouni continued, “There must be transparency that defines all the terms of the contract from the beginning, because the issue is complex, and is increasing.” This is complicated by the lack of awareness and experience, whether in determining needs or choosing the appropriate consultant and contractor.

While the arbitrator and legal advisor, Muhammad Najib, stated that this type of dispute is very complex, due to the diversity of its causes, whether delay or non-implementation in the first place, or the building not conforming to the specifications, stressing that the role of the consultant is extremely important, and must be chosen carefully, and it is imperative to The owner, especially citizens, who build villas should study the contract well, and it is preferable to resort to a specialized lawyer to read it and make his observations, because the court ultimately depends on the papers and documents available to both parties.

In detail, citizens complained about the practices of some contractors during the construction of the house of a lifetime, most notably evading delivery, being late for the previously scheduled date, or not delivering the house according to the agreed upon specifications in terms of foundation or finishing.

They added to “Emirates Today” that “the second problem is the path that the citizen must resort to in the event of a dispute, which is the judiciary, as they consider it expensive, and the owner is unable to prove his right in the end due to deceptive or ambiguous clauses in the contract, especially with regard to With the penal conditions that the owner did not notice due to his lack of experience.”

M.Y. said that he faced similar problems during the construction of his house, attributing this to the lack of sufficient knowledge on the part of citizens about to build, and therefore he sees the need for the municipality to act in this case as a guiding body for the citizen.

He added that, given his problem, he sees the importance of unifying the contracts between the owner, the consultant, and the contractor, and for a specific party to supervise the procedures from beginning to end as a supervisory party that follows up on making payments and implementing obligations, because these aspects represent the core of the dispute.

He continued: “This body is responsible for examining the dispute before entering into litigation, arbitration, expert and other matters, stressing that this solution is sufficient to end disputes early, resolve the rights of each party, and reduce pressure on the owner and contractor.”

Supervisory body

In turn, “A.A” stated that many owners do not have sufficient experience in matters of construction or contracts, and hence the importance of having an entity that guides them to the right path emerges, pointing out that there are sometimes disputes related to supply operations, and therefore there must be government-approved entities. To supply cement, doors, ceramics, and other materials used in construction, and on this basis, invoices can be matched with those materials as long as they are purchased from approved parties.

He stressed that all these details make matters more complicated, especially in light of the owner’s lack of familiarity with them, and his complete dependence on the consultant, who is supposed to represent the owner. But the problem lies in that some of the consultants have relationships and interests with the contractor, and an agreement may occur between them to take each other’s interests into account. .

He believed that “the presence of complete supervision by an official body over this relationship would facilitate many matters, and this could be implemented with appropriate fees, and presented as an option that the owner has the right to resort to or take another path that suits him and bears responsibility for.”

He explained that this supervision starts from simply receiving the consultant or contractor’s offer, so the owner reviews it with the municipality through an easy-to-use platform, waits for its observation or opinion on the offer, and determines whether it is appropriate or not, and then moves to the second stage, which is imposing a kind of time control. And the technical review of the project, according to which the extent of each party’s commitment is monitored, whether in terms of the percentage of completion or delivery or the owner’s commitment to making payments to the contractor on time, and on this basis the responsibility of each party becomes easily clear if a dispute occurs between them.

Facilitating litigation procedures

While A.B. stressed the importance of facilitating litigation procedures, as the dispute sometimes takes a long period, in addition to its high cost to the citizen owners, especially if it includes an arbitration clause, or the owner resorts to changing the contractor for one reason or another.

He pointed out that there are cases filed by each party against the other, which prolongs the litigation, explaining that a young man who does not have sufficient experience often falls into the trap of signing an unfair contract, and later discovers when he resorts to the judiciary that all the provisions are in the contractor’s interest. Hence, there is a need to draft a unified contract that protects the rights of each party.

He suggested creating a platform that would be affiliated with a relevant government department, in which citizens’ requests, contracts signed between the two parties, and any new notes or changes in specifications and requests would be included, in exchange for a nominal fee, so that all these documents would be printed in the event of a legal dispute between the two parties.

specifications

MA complained that contractors did not adhere to the agreed-upon specifications and used poor materials in the foundation process, such as electrical work, concrete foundations, plumbing and finishes. These defects appear when the house is exposed to any emergency, such as heavy rainfall than usual.

He stated that “the owner finds himself helpless after receiving the building, as it is difficult for him to discover these defects early. Unfortunately, the consultant usually evades this responsibility, and the rights between him and the contractor are lost.”

For his part, the General Manager of the Royal Liwan Real Estate Company, Muhammad Hareb, identified two main reasons that the owner bears in this problem: incorrect planning and poor liquidity, pointing out that many young people are rushing to build homes that exceed their financial capabilities, which hinders their ability to Continuing after their savings run out.

He added: “In reality, there are behaviors that must be addressed with complete transparency, the basis of which is misplaced bragging, as a young man in his prime seeks to build a house closer in area to a football field, and asks for strange specifications such as a giant bedroom, pointing out that comparisons She plays a role in this, and it is usually on the part of the wife, as she looks at the homes of her peers and provokes the husband with phrases such as, “This house is closer to a pigeon cage.”

He continued that these behaviors sometimes push young people to borrow huge sums of money to build a house, half of which is not used. He pays the money he has as a down payment, then borrows, and when his money runs out, he stops paying the contractor, forcing the latter to stop construction work, transfer his workers to another place, and disputes begin. Jurisdiction between them.

He attributed this to a lack of awareness and experience, as many young people do not have sufficient knowledge of construction work, and therefore they have to resort to the competent authorities, noting that he is a member of the board of directors of the government “Villa Platform”, which assumes all the responsibility that the person wishing to build bears, starting with Studying contracts, supervising construction, following up with the consultant and contractor, and delivering the house to him that conforms to the specifications he wants, in exchange for a nominal fee that protects him from many consequences.

Regarding the problems affecting contractors, Hareb said: “It cannot be denied that some contractors are responsible for some of these problems. Some of them do not have the ability to complete the projects they contract for, so a defect occurs, which prompts them to use subcontractors, and the problems accumulate one after the other.”

He stressed the importance of studying the contractor and consultant well before contracting with them, and you can rely on a specialized platform that classifies contractors and consultants according to the size of the projects, the rate of completion, and the level of satisfaction with the work, in addition to the necessity of asking well about them before contracting, and you can rely on the experiences of relatives, friends, or people who have completed projects. to them.

Regarding the role of the consultant in protecting the owner, Hareb explained that the consultant in most of these problems has no role, but rather deceives the citizen that he is supervising the construction, but in reality he does not do that, and may collude with the contractor. There are even consultants who have introduced supervision fees in addition to the prescribed percentage. They offer the owner to appoint an engineer or person responsible for the project, at a significant cost, sometimes ranging between 15 and 20 thousand dirhams per month.

He stressed the need to increase oversight of consultants, provide easy channels for complaints, take direct measures against them, and reduce their classification if their violations are repeated.

In turn, the director of the Emirates Sands Contracting Company, Mustafa Ismail Al Zarouni, said: There are frequent disputes between owners and contractors, due to the large number of details related to the contractual relationship, and there are cases for which the owner bears responsibility, and others for which the contractor bears, pointing out that the most prominent problem of the contractor is the delay in delivering the property agreed to be built within A specific period, or non-compliance with agreed-upon specifications, or the company falters due to contracting with projects that exceed its capacity, pointing out that there are people who established contracting companies simply because of their success in supervising the construction of their own homes, and once they enter the market they face obstacles that they cannot overcome.

He pointed out that, on the other hand, there are citizens in their prime who ask for specifications, prepare plans that greatly exceed their capabilities, and make many changes after completing the work, and after paying the first payment that they mostly have, they face financial difficulty, and it becomes difficult for them to continue, so construction stops.

He stressed the need to benefit from the application that provides the service of classifying consultants and contractors, based on their achievements and projects, which helps the citizen determine his destination and choose the appropriate contractor, pointing out the need not to be deceived by the cheapest offers, because the cost is often doubled after the start of implementation, or He later discovers that he has fallen victim to mediocrity and lack of mastery after paying a large advance.

• The presence of complete supervision by an official body over the relationship between the owner and the contractor facilitates many matters.

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Stressful details for owners

Muhammad Naguib: The consultant represents the owner in the contractual relationship, and canceling his role is a legal error.

The arbitrator and legal advisor, Muhammad Najib, said that this type of real estate disputes is indeed frequent, because the details of contracting and construction are very complex for citizens, especially for the group of young people who are about to build their homes, and when many of them resort to the courts, they discover that the contract is not in their interest. There are not enough documents to prove their rights.

He added that the consultant is considered a representative of the owner in this relationship, but the mistake that many make is that they legally abolish the role of the consultant, once they assume responsibility for supervision, because the owner is the only party that can cancel the consultant’s responsibility.

He revealed that there are disputes that, when examined, reveal that the consultant intentionally signs the owner with certain clauses in order to avoid responsibility, and these are matters that are difficult for a simple person who builds one house to understand, unlike real estate investors who seek the help of legal consultants to review contracts.

He explained that each case is different from the other, as there are disputes caused by the owner’s delay or failure to make payments on time, and there are others caused by the contractor related to failure to deliver on the specified date or adherence to the schedule of specifications and quantities, pointing out that the situation is different if there is an arbitration clause in the contract. And whether the consultant is the party concerned with the arbitration or an external party.

He continued that other multiplying problems appear when the contractor falters, and the citizen resorts to another contractor. In this case, he must prove the condition of the building in the same condition as the old contractor, evaluate the completed work, then resort to an expert, to estimate what is owed by each party, and these matters require Time and many details depend largely on the terms of the contract.

He pointed out that the legal path differs from one emirate to another. There are emirates in which it is necessary to resort to the judiciary directly, and others require resorting to arbitration, advising the necessity of resorting to a specialist to review the contract before signing it, whether with the consultant or contractor, to avoid other legal consequences.

He explained that there are several issues related to non-compliance with the specifications and requests of the owner, and when he resorts to the judiciary, he discovers that he canceled the role of the consultant when he personally gave permission to the contractor to carry out these works, indicating that the owners received compensation due to the delay, which also included the lost profits for the period in which they did not receive their properties. . He pointed out that, on the other hand, there are contractors who file cases against owners due to delayed payments, and therefore it is necessary for the citizen to protect himself well with his contracts and evidence of payment.

Najib stressed that the core of this problem is the lack of proper follow-up by the owners. Some believe that once the consultant is assigned and the contractor is chosen, the task is over. This is a big mistake, as it is necessary for him to follow up on the stages of completion, and choose the consultant well, because he will be able to protect his rights, or be a reason for… Wasting it in collusion with the contractor.

Regarding the legal path and whether it is expensive, Naguib said: The path is known, whether there is arbitration, appointing expertise, or other procedures, but the important question remains: Does it have sufficient documents to prove your rights, and this is what every citizen must adhere to.