JEDDAH, 31 July 2005 — Landlords often face enormous difficulties when trying to claim their rights. A brief survey of the problems they face found they all agreed that they have most difficulties when collecting rents.
To trace a defaulting renter can be difficult; many landlords prefer to rent to government employees rather than to people who work in the private sector. Someone who works for a private company is more difficult to find in the event of him losing a job.
Tradition and culture is a factor too. Renting to single tenants is an issue since most landlords do not want singles where families live. Property owner Mahmoud Salih said he could not risk renting to singles. “I did it once and the young man kept having his friends spending the nights in his apartment. It was a disaster since he played music all day long without respecting the privacy of the other tenants.”
Asked if he would prefer to rent to a single female, he said he had enough problems when he rented to a man. “What am I supposed to do with a female and how am I going to talk to her and remind her of the rent if she does not pay?”
Abdul Majeed Yousif, another landlord, spoke about aggressive tenants. “One of my tenants refused to pay because he had no money and that he could barely afford to feed his family. I was lenient for more than eight months but still he refused. Finally he simply said that if I wanted him to leave the apartment I had to rent him another one somewhere else!”
Some landlords wish they had the right to cut the water or electricity as a means to put pressure on their tenants, but are prevented by law. Despite this, Yousif Abdul Razzak decided to do it and eventually had to sell his property in order to get away from his tenants.
“I chased one tenant for almost a year. Somehow he seemed to always manage to get my sympathy. I went to the police a few times but nothing happened. After a year I was so fed up that I decided to cut his electricity and water temporarily. Ironically, he called the police who came to arrest me. I had to get rid of the whole building.”
Muaffaq Al-Shibani, a property owner from Madinah, told Arab News that after letting an apartment to two Egyptian workers and the events that followed, he had to close the building and quit letting flats. “One of the Egyptians refused to pay for eight months, giving the excuse that they did not have any money. They refused to leave even when I offered him some money so he could manage.”
Muaffaq added that when all his attempts failed, he decided to change the locks and have the tenant’s belongings removed. Muaffaq was sentenced to jail for three days.
Umm Muhammad, a widowed landlord, found a way to get rents paid on time: When rents are due, she knocks on the door of her tenants and wishes them good morning. Then she asks for her rent and refuses to leave without it. “Men are usually embarrassed, especially in front of their families, when an old woman like me asks them for money. I make good use of that. Sometimes they try to escape or shut the door, but then I go inside their house and sit until he gets me the money.”
The landlords told their stories to raise awareness of their problems. When a tenant who has been evicted leaves, he often leaves trash. Property owner Jameel Al-Muhannad said: “I am happy when a rent defaulter leaves, but I know that I probably will have to refurbish the apartment once he is gone.”
According to him, evicted renters leave the apartment in a mess; with broken furniture, dirty walls and missing items.
The Makkah Governorate has issued a decree ruling that when tenants do not pay on time they have to leave immediately but because these procedures can take time, people avoid the frustrations of a lengthy process and instead try to solve their problems by themselves.
The landlords Arab News spoke to suggested that the contract between the landlord and the tenant must be both clear and signed in front of the umdah. The umdah on his side should doublecheck the information given in the contract and the details concerning the renter in order to ensure the rights of both parties. The landlords also hoped that the umdah’s office in every district would be equipped with advanced database systems that could keep track of every tenant.
