“Title deeds of some 60 plots of land spreading over a total area of 30,000 square meters at Jawhara Al-Khaleej township located between Al-Ghat and Abdul Aziz Al-Bawaridi streets were revoked temporarily three years ago. It was a big surprise and quite unexpected one as far as owners of these plots of land are concerned. All our efforts to solve the crisis have so far brought about no positive outcome,” said one of the property owners. In total, they have invested about SR90 million in the township, according to a recent report in Al-Riyadh Arabic daily.

Owners of these plots of land do not know the reason for the suspension of their title deeds, which prevents them from selling or transferring ownership of the land, some of which has been developed with residential properties 20 years ago. In some cases, a property is listed as having five different owners.

Owners of these properties have completed necessary legal procedures for development of these properties.

The citizens complained that they have not received any convincing replies from the Riyadh municipal authorities.

“We came to know that a committee comprising representatives of various agencies have been constituted to look into the matter and solve it. But even after three years, nothing has happened and we have so far not received any specific explanation with regard to suspension of title deeds,” one of them said.

Most of the owners of these residences are not affluent investors.

“Some groups of these citizens joined hands with some wealthy investors to build residential villas on commercial basis in order to sell them, one of them said. “The financial conditions of most of these citizens have been made worse after pumping their money into the project. Some of them have started exchanging charges of cheating against each other and seeking their investment without realizing that this was an outcome of the suspension of the title deeds. Adding fuel to the fire, this issue resulted in a decline up to 40 percent in the values of properties in the district as a whole.”

“The citizens at the township have not been properly notified about the actual cause for suspension of title deeds,” said Iqab bin Miteb Al-Otaibi, a citizen. “Therefore, they simply assume that there could be some errors in the basic planning of the township.”

Khaled Qoblan Al-Harbi, another citizen, said that he bought a plot of land, which was a joint property of five people. Al-Harbi, an employee of Saudi Electricity Company  (SEC), started constructing a small villa at a time when there was a huge increase in the prices of construction materials. “Unfortunately, I could not take advantage of the real estate loan approved by the SEC due to the suspension of title deeds. Now I am in a perilous condition without knowing how to settle debts owed to one local bank as well as to some individuals,” he said.

Saad Hodail Al-Fareedi explained his plight after starting a joint venture of constructing villas with the partnership of some eight citizens.

“These ordinary citizens offered their contributions after taking some loans. My financial condition is too bad to help them solve their financial crises due to making investments in the venture. There is no way to sell the property either,” he said.

The citizens also abandoned the idea of appointing a lawyer to start litigation proceedings due to the huge amount of expense required.

Al-Fareedi also noted there has been a fall in the value of villas due to the title-deed crisis.

“We hoped that the villas could be sold out at least for an amount of SR1.6 million in the beginning. But the value decreased with the passing of the time and the value had declined to about SR1 million,” he said while urging authorities to take urgent steps to solve their problems urgently.

Abdurahman Shanar Al-Qahtani, another citizen, said that most of the citizens who stopped construction of villas at the township are living in precarious condition. Some of them are “absconding” now due to their inability to settle debts with an anticipation to have a solution to their problems in the near future.