YANBU, 25 March 2008 — The Saudi government has a fairly generous land-distribution policy whereupon citizens — after a lot of red tape — can get free plots of land upon which to build homes. Habib Al-Magrabi thought he had everything worked out to this end. He jumped through all the bureaucratic hoops: When the bureaucrats wanted something stamped, or a fee paid, or for him to come back later, he obeyed. He played by the rules but it turns out that the rules played him. It came to a unpleasant surprise to Al-Magrabi when, after spending two years and SR500,000 to build his house, the municipality informed him that “oops!” he was given the wrong plot of land! Sorry! Then the owner of the said plot of land wanted SR300,000 or he was going to raze the home. “They did not even punish the official who gave me the wrong land,” Al-Magrabi told Arab News. He is now asking the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs to find out who can reimburse him for this small error on a license that has snowballed into a rather large lump of money. There will be a hearing on April 21. Until then Al-Magrabi has suspended finishing up his house, in which he planned to retire.
