“Some owners behave as if they own the entire building for themselves and not just a single apartment. They will dominate the use of the roofs and take all the parking spaces in the building for themselves,” Al-Madinah newspaper said on Tuesday in an investigative report about the issue.

The original owners of the buildings tend to distance themselves from the problems among the owners of apartments and say they have nothing to do with the building after having sold all the apartments it contains.
 

The lack of proper accommodation in the Kingdom has become an increasing problem over the last few years. Building housing units on residential plots has been delayed while the population increased at an annual rate of 3.5 percent, which is among the highest in the world.

The rising rents have driven many citizens to buy their own apartments. The rent of a three-room apartment has reached SR16,000 per year and that of a four-room apartment has gone up to SR22,000.

The low quality of construction makes the buildings in constant need of repair and maintenance, thus aggravating problems between the tenants.

To resolve the problems among apartment owners in the same building, some realtors asked them to set up unions to look after the buildings and resolve any problems that may rise among the owners of the apartments.
 

Apartment owner Ahmed Abdullah said he regretted buying an apartment because of a neighbor and his children. “My neighbor insists on parking his three cars in the parking lots assigned for the other tenants. He has also built two rooms on the roof.

He feels it’s his right to do this, as he owns the annex on top of the building, Abdullah said.

When the neighbor removed the roof tiles to build the rooms, water started to leak into Abdullah’s house. He told his neighbor to respect his rights but the man would not listen.

“When we talked to the proprietor of the building, he told us he had already sold all the apartments and was no longer responsible for the building,” he added.

Abdullah is now trying to establish maintenance unions for the apartment owners and hoped this would put an end to the problems between them and would ensure harmony among residents.
 

Muhammad Al-Ghamdi said one apartment owner in his building placed a water tank near the general tank for the entire building, saying he wanted to ensure a steady flow of water to his apartment.

“We sometimes buy water tankers when the water is cut from the building. This man then refuses to share in the costs,” he said.

Al-Ghamdi asked the concerned authorities to enforce a law to compel owners of apartments in all buildings to pay their share in the periodical maintenance of the lifts and in the water and electricity bills. “Any apartment owner who refuses to pay his share in these costs should be fined,” he said.
 

Talal Al-Johani complained about the constant noises in his apartment building. “This makes you doubt if you are an owner or a renting tenant,” he said. He also called for the initiation of a system that would force apartment owners to share in maintenance and other costs.

Al-Johani said the original owners of the buildings should not be relieved from their responsibility towards the buildings they have sold, unless a board of directors was established to run the affairs of the building.

“Protective maintenance will preserve the real estate value of these buildings, estimated to be worth billions of riyals. It will also prolong the life of a building by 15 to 20 years,” he said.
 
Ridiculous

Realtor Abdullah Al-Balawi noted a remarkable increase in the number of owned apartments in recent years. He said the price of an apartment may range between SR380,000 and SR500,000 depending on the location and the number of rooms.

Al-Balawi said paying a small amount of money for maintenance and the upkeep of common utilities was nothing compared to the large sums spent on the purchase of apartments. “There should be owners' unions looking after the affairs of the entire residential plot, not just the buildings,” he suggested.

Al-Balawi described the differences that sometimes arise among owners as ridiculous. “A resident on the second floor will refuse to share in the cost of repairing the lift on the pretext that he will not need it. When the lift is fixed he will be the first to use it,” he said.
 
Rules

Chairman of the Real Estate committee in the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), Abdullah Al-Ahmari, said the rules for the establishment of owners' unions require at least 21 apartments in one building. With the exception of towers, most buildings do not have this large number of apartments, he said.

Al-Ahmari proposed to set up small councils of three persons in each building to take on the responsibility of repair and maintenance, look after the affairs of the apartment and resolve differences among the owners.

He suggested that these committees could oblige the residents to pay monthly or yearly contributions to meet the cost of maintenance and to pay the water and electricity bills. “This simple mechanism would resolve about 80 percent of the issues between owners of apartments in the same building,” he added.

Al-Ahmari also asked the municipalities to establish special departments to follow up the issue of owned apartments and resolve differences among residents over petty issues.
 
Contribution

Khaled Al-Hami, a lawyer, called for compelling the original owners of a building to pay a set amount of money for the maintenance works upon selling all their apartments. He also advised residents to report to the police any resident who refuses to contribute to the costs of water, electricity or maintenance.
 
Short supply

A number of GCC banks and foreign companies have asked for detailed studies about the value of real estate units in the Kingdom and the size of supply and demand before entering the market which needs between 100,000 to 120,000 units every year. A field study revealed that many real estate developers are now constructing their buildings in areas away from the city centers to avoid paying too high a price for a piece of land.

The study, however, said this move has not reduced the cost of renting or buying apartments. It called for more investments in small apartments of two to three rooms, saying those are acutely in short supply.