Luxury delivered.So say the signs on the side of Damac’s Marina Terrace apartment tower in the Dubai Marina.
I imagine that the apartment owners wondered if they would ever get to see that luxury for themselves.
Construction on the tower took 11 months longer than expected. Originally given a highly unlikely 19 months to be completed, it was planned to be delivered in March 2005.
The keys weren’t handed over until January 2006. When given the keys, owners were also given a letter that stated they couldn’t stay the night in the tower until further notice! It turns out that the building had yet to receive a “final occupiers’ certificate” – notification from Civil Defense that the building is deemed to be safe and habitable.
What to do? There must have been some homeless Marina Terrace owners wandering around Dubai; wondering how long it would be before they could move into their apartments. Relief came in early February with another, and this time, apologetic letter from Damac telling them that it was now possible for them to live there.
A few questions arise for me that I know are silly to ask in Dubai, but is it legal to hand over the keys to owners when the building isn’t yet certified? Did they get the owners’ signatures on the hand-over papers before giving them the letter that said, “Oh by the way, you can’t live there yet.”? This is a reputable property development company, one of the big 3 in Dubai, not some shifty fly-by-night operator working out of his car.
Now that the residents are moving in, the building isn’t without its little foibles. You can read more about it on ITP’s Construction Week website.
5 comments:
I don't get it, I've been to the Lé Révé bldg a fortnight back and was shocked to see one floor completely furnsihed and inhabited (ppl were watching TV!) as the hoist went up. Yup, hoist. Even the primary 4 elevators hadn't been powered then (save for the service lift). The rest of the floors didn't have the glass cladding done! Imagine a building just around 70% complete and...moving in with a TV..LOL!
I wonder how much the apartments went for!
ds, they were being sold off the plan way back from AED870,000 to AED2,370,000. Obviously way, way above that now...
i am not surprised at all... there are political reasons for giving the keys as early as possible.. this way you can start collecting charges and u can say well we gave the keys at that date.. etc..
there should be a style and a way to treat customers.. not only as dictated by law, but also by common sense and decency.. and it seems nowadays in our rapidly-changing dubai we are lacking a lot of this.
I happens every where. We did a feasability for one of our clients how constructed a residential cum commercial building in Saudi.
The apartments were sold and keys handed over way back in September 2005. The construction will be completed, and the building will be opened only in November 2007.
Now, here is the funny part - the owners bought the property, but they had no official rights over it, no documents et all. That would be given to them only after the Saudi authorities checked the building and deemed it safe.
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