Owners associations refuse to countenance transferred liabilities Dubai: It is anything but a reconciliation process. Many property owners in Dubai are finding that their efforts to mend fences with developers is leading the way to potential conflicts. The process is integral to developers ceding control of property management to owners associations. As part of this, developers have to square the expenses incurred during the period they were in actual control of the property in a book of accounts. This relates to the funds collected from the property owners during this period. How these funds were deployed have to be accounted for by the developer prior to handing over their charge to the owners associations. Unexpected shock But, as many owners are belatedly finding.

Common area plans must be registered with DLD to be legal Majority of the Interim Owners' Associations (IOAs) in Dubai are not legal entities as not many common area site plans have been registered with the Land Department, says a top legal firm. “Law 27 of 2007 concerning ownership of jointly owned properties says the owner association (OA) comes into existence once the first title deed is issued, however, jointly owned property is not created until the common area site plan is registered. Not many common area site plans have been registered so technically we believe the majority of the IOA's are not legal entities within the meaning of the law,” Michael Lunjevich, Partner, Hadef & Partners, told Emirates 24/7. “Therefore they cannot open back accounts unless Real.

Dubai homeowners are facing legal limbo as developers prematurely withdraw their maintenance services in anticipation of owners taking over the building’s upkeep, a property lawyer said. Owner associations (OA) waiting for registration have been left unable to pay bills, collect service fees or manage maintenance contracts after developers relinquished responsibility for building upkeep, said  Brent Baldwin, an associate at Dubai’s Hadef & Partners. “It’s a no-man’s land. Some developers want to get out and they’re trying to leave the owners to it. But [until registered] owners don’t have the legal status to do it so they need the developer to be involved.” A number of buildings have seen cooling and electricity services cut-off as confusion over bill.