{"id":51514,"date":"2017-04-11T03:04:21","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T20:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/?p=51514"},"modified":"2017-04-11T01:09:16","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T18:09:16","slug":"abu-dhabi-homeowners-told-to-alter-value-of-homes-to-avoid-municipality-fee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/abu-dhabi-homeowners-told-to-alter-value-of-homes-to-avoid-municipality-fee\/","title":{"rendered":"Abu Dhabi homeowners told to alter value of homes to avoid municipality fee"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nABU DHABI \/\/ Homeowners have been advised to falsify the value of their property on an official document to avoid being billed for Abu Dhabi’s new municipality fee, which should be charged only to tenants.The extraordinary advice came from Abu Dhabi Distribution Company, the utilities provider that collects the fee on behalf of the municipality by adding it to tenants’ power and water bills.The fee – 3 per cent of a property’s annual rent, payable monthly – has been beset by problems since its introduction in January.All expatriate tenants are required to pay it. Only Emiratis and homeowners are exempt. But the municipality’s Tawtheeq property registration system is apparently unable to distinguish between owners and tenants. It assumes that a property’s total value as recorded on a Tawtheeq certificate is the annual rent, and homeowners are therefore being wrongly billed.The utilities company has now advised homeowners to change that figure to a nominal amount, such as Dh1, to avoid the fee.”Lots of people have approached us and thought that we made a mistake,” a company spokesman said.”People came with lots of arguments and half of them were legitimate. I’d say to owners, go and fix this issue with your developer, the people you signed the contract with, and then the municipality.”You can go and make another contract. If they produce a document that states their property is worth Dh1, they would be charged accordingly – Dh450, which is the minimum municipality charge.”Problems have also arisen because the charge was backdated to February last year, and many people have been billed a lump sum to cover 10 months of 2016, with threats of having their power disconnected if they fail to pay.One tenant, a doctor in Abu Dhabi city, was billed for thousands of dirhams for a contract that began in April 2015 – before the tax was even announced.And the owner of a villa in Al Reef, near Abu Dhabi airport, said: “I was billed over Dh60,000 but I didn’t pay it as we are not supposed to.”Since January I have been getting text messages and reminders for bill payments, so I am afraid my power will be disconnected some day.”The utilities company now says that although it is sending payment reminders, it will not shut off anyone’s power while the housing tax confusion continues.”We have not carried out any disconnections yet and this is to help people to understand and digest the charges, and set a clear path for payments,” the company spokesman said. “We understand that there was an implementation delay for six months, so we will give people time.”It is also against the law to cut off power in the summer months, he said.Any dispute about the bill must be taken to the municipality, the spokesman said. “We are only the collecting agency. The only people who can waive or reconsider these charges or make exemptions are Abu Dhabi Municipality.”Things are not under our control, we only take the information the municipality gives us.”The municipality blamed the problem on a “data update project”. It said its rental contract authentication department was working with the company in charge of the update to ensure that the value of a property was not considered when calculating the fee, and to modify the rental value so that customers’ bills were correct. anwar@thenational.ae
\n
\nSource : thenational.ae
\nRead more…Abu Dhabi homeowners told to alter value of homes to avoid municipality fee<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABU DHABI \/\/ Homeowners have been advised to falsify the value of their property on...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-doS","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50926,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/abu-dhabi-property-owners-wrongly-billed-for-municipality-fees\/","url_meta":{"origin":51514,"position":0},"title":"Abu Dhabi property owners wrongly billed for municipality fees","date":"April 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r ABU DHABI \/\/ Property owners are being wrongly billed for tens of thousands of dirhams in taxes from which they are exempt - and threatened with having utilities cut off if they do not pay.It is the latest problem for the new municipality fee system, introduced in January.Expatriate tenants\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47757,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/abu-dhabi-tenants-in-limbo-over-tawtheeq-system\/","url_meta":{"origin":51514,"position":1},"title":"Abu Dhabi tenants in limbo over Tawtheeq system","date":"March 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r ABU DHABI \/\/ Property agents say they have hundreds of tenants left waiting without power because of a fault in the Tawtheeq housing registration system.More than three weeks after the latest computer system was introduced, residents are still spending up to five hours queuing at the main Abu Dhabi\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39635,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/homeowners-off-the-hook-for-abu-dhabis-three-per-cent-municipality-fee\/","url_meta":{"origin":51514,"position":2},"title":"Homeowners off the hook for Abu Dhabi's three per cent municipality fee","date":"January 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Abu Dhabi's Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport (DMAT) said on Wednesday that the new 3 per cent municipality charge being introduced this month will not apply to homeowners, merely expatriate renters of property.A spokesman confirmed to The National that the fee covers tenancy agreements only, and is directly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39557,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/abu-dhabi-introduces-three-per-cent-municipality-charge-on-households\/","url_meta":{"origin":51514,"position":3},"title":"Abu Dhabi introduces three per cent municipality charge on households","date":"January 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r ABU DHABI \/\/ The new municipality fee payable by every expatriate tenant in Abu Dhabi is to be backdated to February last year. The fee, equivalent to 3 per cent of a tenant's annual rent, has begun appearing in water and electricity bills from Abu Dhabi Distribution Company.\u200bThe backdating\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10512,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/abu-dhabi-introduces-3-municipal-fee-on-expat-home-rentals\/","url_meta":{"origin":51514,"position":4},"title":"Abu Dhabi introduces 3% municipal fee on expat home rentals","date":"April 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r Expats renting their homes in Abu Dhabi will now have to pay a 3 per cent municipal fee on the value of their annual lease. Details of the new charge were published in the February edition of the Official Gazette following a decision by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28401,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/register-your-abu-dhabi-tenancy-contract-or-you-cant-sue-for-rental-fraud\/","url_meta":{"origin":51514,"position":5},"title":"Register your Abu Dhabi tenancy contract or you can't sue for rental fraud","date":"October 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r ABU DHABI \/\/ Prosecutors will no longer accept lawsuits filed by victims of rental fraud if their lease contract is not registered with Abu Dhabi Municipality.The decision will come into force next year and is aimed at decreasing the number of fraud cases involving rented property, said Hassan Al\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}