JEDDAH, 29 July 2006 — Landlords across Jeddah are complaining about a common trend among unruly Saudi tenants who refuse to pay their rent and thus forcing apartment owners to frantically run around begging them to pay up or leave.
Some tenants, when asked to leave, refuse to empty their apartments forcing desperate landlords to even waive owed rent just to get the lodgers to pack their bags. In some instances apartment owners have also been known to give tenants money on top just to ensure they leave, Al-Watan daily reported.
Speaking to landlords across the city it seems such out-of-hand tenants are the worst nightmare any building owner could possibly be forced to face with.
Landlord Omar Muhammad says a Saudi man rented an apartment from him and refused to pay a single halala for five years. “This Saudi tenant was renting an apartment from me and refused to pay. I complained to the authorities but it just didn’t work. He wasn’t scared in anyway,” he said.
Muhammad said he was then forced to pay the tenant to leave. “For five years he wasn’t paying anything. In the end I waived all that he owed me just to get him to move out. The man was very rude and told me he would only leave if I paid him SR6,000,” said Muhammad. At the end Muhammad had no choice but to pay the man.
Ali Suleiman is a landlord who saw one of his tenants misusing an apartment he had rented and so asked him to leave. The man refused to move out saying he would only do so once the tenancy ended. Suleiman said that the contract finished and the tenant continued to live in the apartment. “It was a painfully long process evicting this guy. I went to the police who handed me a notice to give to the tenant asking him to come to the police station a month later,” he said.
Suleiman said that the man did not show up and so he went to the police who handed him another notice to give him asking him to appear at a local police station a month later. “He never turned up and so the police came and took him to the station. Now I’m waiting for the paperwork to finish so as to be able to evict him,” said Suleiman.
Because of the hassles involved in making Saudi tenants pay, many landlords prefer to rent out their property to non-Saudis.
Apartment owner Sultan Ahmad nearly ended up in jail because of a nonpaying tenant. Ahmad rented an apartment to a Saudi man who after three months stopped paying rent and continued living for three years owing him more than SR50,000 in rent.
“This tenant used every possible trick in the book to not pay. I heard excuse after excuse and I reached a point where I had to react to this injustice and so I cut the electricity supply. He went to the police station and reported the power cut and said that I placed his mother’s life in danger because she lives on a life support machine,” said Ahmad.
The police arrived and arrested Ahmad. Luckily for him the tenant withdrew his complaint. He said, “In the end I ended up begging him to leave and I said that I would not ask for the SR50,000 he owed me. He finally left. My question is why do we have to go through all this and who is there to protect us?”
Khaled Abu Rashed is a Saudi lawyer who believes that due to the poor current tenancy laws and long procedures involved in evicting tenants many people feel inclined to not pay rent. He said, “By law, owners aren’t allowed to cut off electricity or water if tenants don’t pay. They also can’t go to the police to get justice. They need to go to court and follow the legal way. The court procedures are very long and sometimes take more than three years.”
Abu Rashed added, “This frustrates landlords who want their rent while tenants continue living carelessly. What frustrates them more is that if they cut the electricity or water, they could potentially be arrested.”
