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Property Appeals Court received 883 cases in first half |
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Sunday July 26 2009
The time a case takes at the Property Court of First Instance has
gone down by more than 20 per cent to 45 days from 57 days in 2008,
according to Abdul Qader Moosa, Chief Justice of Dubai Property Court.
However,
the time a case takes in the Appeals Court has risen to 90 days in 2009
from 80 days last year because of the increase in the number of cases
this year.
"It is a very short time in comparison with the
years cases take in any other Arab country," the Chief Justice pointed
out. Moosa said the court's workload has increased.
Property Court of First Instance received 12 cases in the last six months of 2008. Judgments were given in five cases.
Hearings
usually took three months. In comparison, during the first six months
of this year the court received 50 cases, of which 43 were decided.
Hearings are on in the remaining seven cases.
The Property
Court of Appeals, meanwhile, heard 137 cases during the last six months
of 2008, of which 20 were decided while the rest were deferred to the
2009 judicial session. Each case took three months. But, in the first
six months of this year, the court registered 883 new cases, giving a
verdict in 168 over a period of just three months. Referring to the
impact of the global crisis, Moosa said the launch of the court
coincided with the start of the financial crisis late last year. "We
were surprised with the many cases of contract termination by investors
who feared that projects may not start. That period witnessed many
contract termination cases for failing to pay instalments. However, the
number of such cases was very small compared to the volume of the
emirate's real estate projects."
He reassured buyers that each
project has a separate escrow account, and a developer is not allowed
to seize another project's account to collect debts due from a
different project.
He advised investors to make sure before
buying property that the developer, broker and the project are
registered. Also, they have to deposit their money in the escrow
account of the project. They also need to be aware of the laws that
regulate the real estate sector. These are available at the website of
the Property Court and the Rera.
Source: Emirates Business 24/7
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