Monday 25 April 2011

Only Oqood-registered investors will get project cancellation notice : Rera

Dubai: Ensure you are registered in the Real Estate Regulatory Agency's (Rera) Oqood system, otherwise you won't get an official email of your project's cancellation.

“If the project is cancelled all investors will know that by an official email sent to them, but they have to ensure that they are registered in Oqood system, Real Estate Regulatory Agency CEO Marwan bin Ghalita .

Oqood system allows the registration, tracking and collation of all real estate contracts in line with Dubai Land Department regulations. No registered property sale or transfer can take place unless it has been registered on the system.

Rera has scrapped 202 projects since the global financial downturn and more were expected this year. Officials have said that cancellation is not an easy process with the department having to assess the reasons for the delay and how the claims will be settled. Currently, the agency is carrying out a financial review of a number of real estate projects and trying to assess their viability.

Rera said in March that 220 projects were moving forward. Separately, this website reported that 114 projects had been registered under the Tayseer (guaranteed funding) initiative launched in 2009.

Late last year, Hadef and Partners found that majority of their respondents to their survey sought public announcement of cancelled projects which they felt will assist Dubai’s real estate market. The survey found said that developers, who cancel or place developments on hold without a definitive completion date, should be required to pay loss of profit related damages to buyers who are not in default.
On Sunday, this website reported that a developer cannot compel an investor to switch over to another project if the project, where he had originally invested, is put on hold.
“Investors can’t be forced to accept any offer by the developer and they both need to agree to do the transfer,” Ghalita said.

Wednesday 20 April 2011

ID cards to be delivered through post offices

Dubai: National identity cards are not being delivered to residents' homes or offices despite payment of the courier charges.

The Emirates Identity Authority (Eida) said lack of courier services has forced it to distribute the cards through post offices in various emirates.

In focus: ID card

However, Empost on Wednesday announced that it has stopped accepting new cards from Eida since January 27 to clear the backlog of cards.

Officials said they were processing an average of 10,000 cards daily. "The two courier companies engaged by us have certain limitations in handling that many cards a day, Dr Ali Mohammad Al Khoury, Director-General of Eida, told Gulf News on Wednesday.

The lack of courier service companies which can deliver huge volumes of National ID cards in the country had forced Eida to distribute the cards through post offices, Al Khoury said.

"We are printing more than 10,000 cards a day and the two courier service companies engaged by us have certain limitation to handle that many cards a day," he said.

"That prompted us to engage Emirates Post to distribute cards through its post offices across the country," he said. Empost has been delivering the cards since 2007 and Aramex courier company started delivering them recently.

The official was responding to complaints raised by Gulf News readers who said that they were asked to collect their cards from the post offices despite paying courier charges when they applied for the card. They said they were surprised to receive a message from Emirates Post, saying, "Please pick up your National ID card from [a particular post office]."

Large volumes

Despite communication with the several other courier companies in the country, Emirates ID could not find one which could deliver huge volumes of ID cards, Al Khoury said. Two other companies which came forward had limited capacity, he said. Al Khoury explained that Emirates ID does not save money by distributing the cards through post offices.

The official said out of Dh70 extra charges paid by the applicant, Emirates ID receives about Dh10 towards courier charges which is paid to the Emirates Post.

He said the rest of the Dh60 goes into typing, envelopes and packaging. Courier companies charge more than Dh10 which is paid by Emirates ID, not by the applicant, the official said.

Asked about the request from the applicants to get the cards distributed through the nearest post offices, he said all such requests would be taken up with Emirates Post. Meanwhile, a meeting of Higher Management Committee of Emirates ID lauded the positive response of the citizens to the registration process.

Dr Al Khoury who chaired the meeting, called on Emiratis to register before the final grace period expires by June 30.

Temporary stop to clear backlog

Empost, the express courier company delivering the ID cards since 2007, has stopped accepting the new ID cards from the Emirates ID since January 27 to clear the backlog of cards, Sultan Al Medfa, CEO of Empost told Gulf News.

Due to huge volumes of cards printed by the Emirates ID, Empost had a large number of cards, awaiting delivery, he said. Al Medfa said Empost will take new cards from Emirates ID after clearing the backlog.

He said many people are not aware that Empost and Emirates Post are two different organisations.

Visa renewal : Emirates ID card to be linked

Abu Dhabi: The national ID card registration will be linked with residence visa issuance and renewal in Western Region in Abu Dhabi from Sunday, the Emirates Identity Authority (Emirates ID) announced on Tuesday.

The preventive medicine centres (PMC) conducting visa medical tests at Madinat Zayed, Sila and Delma will start linking the process with ID card registration from April 24. The PMC in Ghaythi will link the medical test with ID card registration on May 1.

In focus: All you need to know about the ID card

This will require all expatriates in the Western Region residents to apply for the ID card before applying for or renewing their visas, said a statement issued by Emirates ID. A resident's visa application form should have the Emirates ID's seal, as proof of registration.

Residents can visit authorised typing centre to fill out the application form and pay the fee, complete the visa medical test at a PMC and then visit the Emirates ID registration centre to complete the registration process.

This has already been implemented in Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah as part of Emirates ID's 2010-'13 strategy to enrol all expatriates in the country as part of process to procure a residence visa.

Apart from expanding the linking process emirate-wise, Emirates ID has started linking the visa medical tests and ID card registration at small preventive medical centres across the country, a senior official told Gulf News recently. This is to expedite the linking process, Dr. Ali Al Khoury, Director-General of Emirates ID, said.

Monday 18 April 2011

Dh12,000 annual fine for labour card violations

Employers violating labour card rules will now be fined Dh12,000 per year. Earlier, companies were fined Dh5,000 for each year of delay in renewing labour cards, according to a top official of the Labour Ministry.

Humaid bin Dimas, Assisstant Undersecretary, Ministry of Labour, while addressing the weekly meeting said there were about 60,000 expired labour cards of the total four million cards as per 2010 statistics. This means about 5.1 per cent employees do not have a valid labour card, 'Al Khaleej' newspaper quoted Bin Dimas as saying.

Labour Ministry will not accept requests of fine exemptions for non-renewal of labour cards, he stressed. After the installtion of the new electronic system in order to reduce the time taken to issue a card to a mere 10minutes, the ministry had given companies 60 days to clear the backlog, the official explained.

The imposition of fines is to improve employer-employee relationship, he added.

Bin Dimas said: "While earlier the fines imposed on violations was about Dh5,000 for each year of delay, the same has been increased to Dh1,000 for each month of delay, which means Dh12,000 per year."

It would be difficult to handle absconders if they do not have a valid labour card. Bin Dimas urged companies to adopt the WPS system and renew labour cards on time.

There are about 120,000 small companies from a total of 160,000 firms registered with the ministry system.