Residents prepare for life under Strata law

The law will see developers hand over control and ownership of the common areas of the building rather than just individual units.

Currently, many buyers only legally own the actual unit they bought and have no claim on common areas such as pool and gym. The new legislation will divide the common areas up by the number of units and gives each owner an equal share.

Strata will put ownership and therefore management and maintenance of the building into the hands of the home owners who will be responsible for ensuring these areas are managed and maintained effectively. Each building will elect a committee of members to oversee such matters.

It will be the committee's responsibility to budget for all required maintenance work for the building or area, including an allowance for unforeseen issues. The total sum will be divided by the number of units and all owners will be requested to pay that sum in the form of a service fee. In a move that will be much stricter than other countries with Strata law's, the Dubai government is planning to have strict policies in place for payment of the service fees whereby owners who fail to make the necessary payments in a given period of time, could face having their unit sold as a penalty. It is hoped such a strict measure will protect the Home Owners Associations from suffering financial difficulties and the building suffering as a consequence.

In preparation for the laws introduction, and in one of the first moves of its kind in Dubai, residents of Westside Marina Building, with full support of its developer; Tulip Developments, have signed a joint submission from Better Homes and AUAE strata global to manage both the property and Home Owners Association of the building.

The arrangement calls for Better Homes Property Management to be contracted in the pre strata law stages while Tulip developments remains owner of the common property. AUAE Strata Global will then step into a strata management role for the Home Owners, undertaking all duties required in relation to the strata law and its regulations, developing a framework to help them move forward towards strata title.

The agreement was negotiated by representatives of the Westside Marina Building's owners with the developer's encouragement. Keith Williams, one of the owners involved with managing the review process commented, "We consider Better Homes' early decision to establish a joint venture partnership with a company experienced in strata management to have been inspirational. For us, it means that we have appointed a company who can provide us with all the administrative, accounting and legal back-up we will need when our HOA prepares to "go it alone" when the strata law becomes operational"

Ryan Mahoney, Managing Director of Better Homes added "The Strata law is a real positive move for home owners in Dubai. It will have a lot of implications for them and we thought it vital to bring in people with the necessary expertise to make the transfer as simple and straight forward as it can be."