A DOZEN tenants of an upscale neighbourhood housing 60 villas near the D-Ring Road had been living a true Gulf dream - until an eviction notice came. Having paid two years’ rent totalling QR216,000 (QR9,000 per month) in December 2007 and moving in by the start of this year, their tranquillity was shattered when a notice from a local court said that a real estate firm (Company B) had defaulted to the owner of the property (Company A) and tenants must vacate by October 7 – tomorrow. The verdict was dated May 20, 2008. The eviction notices were served on June 12. Confusion quickly ensued as the tenants had never heard of Company B and had signed up with a different firm. It soon unfolded that Company A had sublet the whole premises to Company B, who sublet it to another real estate enterprise (Company C), who again sublet some 20 villas to a co-operative group (Company D), out of which 12 villas were further handed over to a real estate agent (Company E), with whom the 12 unfortunate tenants had signed the contracts. “And we had no idea all along, how deeply mired the whole scenario is,” said a Canadian tenant who dealt with Company E. Scrambling to get some answers, the tenants made frantic calls to Company E but they were not entertained. “We went to their office but were denied access to the management; wrote letters to the company and are still waiting for a reply. “They continue to play a cat and mouse game with us. Sensing trouble, some tenants immediately vacated and moved out. Others continue to hope,” said another tenant from Malaysia. Gulf Times was similarly told that the “manager is busy with a very long meeting” when the office of Company E was visited yesterday. Those who are willing to leave the place to put an end to the ordeal face a major problem – Company E would not return the remaining amount of about QR150,000. “One South African was indeed able to retrieve as much as QR50,000 using connections, but for others like me, the outstanding balance is QR140,000,” the Canadian said. Qatar’s rental law does allow subletting of premises if the owner allows it . In this particular case, it seems, the owner did not care how many times the villas were subleased and to whom, like bachelors or families. A contract between one of the tenants and Company E, made available to this newspaper, states: “This lease may be sublet by the tenant without expressed approval in writing of the landlord or his agents.” “Qatari laws also say that if a contract between two companies is revoked – in this case Company A and Company B – all sub-contracts are null and void as well,” according to a lawyer at Company D. He went on to explain: “We (Company D) got the villas to house the employees. And the remaining villas were handed down to Company E, which defaulted on payments after just one month to us.” However, the domino effect was already in play, where non-payments by agents at the bottom of the chain caused the parties on top to file for claims leaving the tenants at – literally - no one’s mercy. The current court decision stands against Company B, which needs to pay around QR15mn to the property owner (Company A), as well as vacate the premise. The new rental rates sent out by the landlord (Company A) range from QR19,500 to QR20,500. Tomorrow is the “eviction hearing” at the Courts in Dafna, where Company B is likely to request “time from a week to two months to sort out things “, according to a source close to the company. Tenants, meanwhile, plan to show up at the court and appeal to the judges. GT

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