Dubai Real Estate: Service fees and Owner's Association. - YouTube

Hi guys! My name is Denis and I'm a real estate agent in Dubai.

- Quite often I receive a question from my clients and I can hear on the market as well ...

- that people are asking: "What is the service charge in this or that project?"

- It's a very important question but I don't think that everybody understands ...

- what stands behind this idea of the service charges.

- And who is the one who determines them.

- So, in this video, I will try to explain it.

- So let's imagine that there is a building with 100 units ...

- and this building was sold to 100 investors.

- And since all units are sold this project doesn't belong to the developer anymore ...

- and it is the owners who own this property.

- And now imagine that somebody wants to do something within the building, ...

- within the common areas of the building.

- And in case he wants to change or do something ...

- he needs to come and meet with 100 people to get their permission to do something.

- And as you can imagine it's a quite difficult task to do ...

- and we can say it's almost impossible.

- And that's why owners should elect an owner's association.

- And this association will take care of such questions.

- As usual in the owner's association, there are 5-7 people, ...

- where 5 is minimum and 7 is maximum.

- And there are as well some people in reserve ...

- in case if something happens with people who are on the board.

- And basically these people they will meet and they will discuss ...

- which company they want to use for the cleaning or for the security or who will take care of the swimming pool ...

- who will clean the windows outside and some other different things ...

- that are related to the common area of the building.

- And once they choose these companies they can calculate how much each owner should pay.

- And they can't really put any amount on the list.

- They as well have to get a permission, a confirmation from the Land Department.

- So they will submit the indications to the Land Department ...

- and the Land Department will check these numbers.

- There is an index that is related to each area and Land Department will confirm ...

- if the price is reasonable or not.

- Only after that owner's association can ask owners of the units in the building to start paying service fees.

- By the way, any owner of the building can run for election ...

- and any owner can vote as well.

- Well, as far as they don't have any outstanding service fees.

- So in case if you paid everything you can come to the election ...

- and you can represent yourself as a candidate or you can vote for somebody.

- By the way, it's a volunteer work so nobody gets paid for being on the board of the owner's association.

- It's just people who take care of their building ...

- maybe it's a compound of the villas and they have their interest that first of all, they will pay low service fees ...

- and second that the property will be in a good condition.

- And as you might know, each owner should pay service fees according to the size of the unit that he owns.

- So in case if you own a studio you will pay less than if somebody owns a 3-bed apartment or a huge penthouse.

- So the service fees are linked to the size of the property.

- And as usual, it's paid quarterly.

- So as you can see it's not a developer who determines the maintenance fees.

- They can give you an idea what will be approximate fees ...

- but it's not them, it's the owners of the building who choose the companies ...

- and who will determine how much you need to pay.

- I hope you got some useful information regarding the maintenance fees ...

- and about the owner's association.

- And if you have any questions please list them below ...

- I'll be happy to answer them because it's a quite big topic ...

- and I explained just the small part of it.

- Thank you for watching this video ...

- and I'll see you in a next one.

- Goodbye.