Accommodation in Ajman, UAE

Accommodation in UAE: An Experience of Living in Ajman/Sharjah in year 2008/2009

Finding Accommodations and Getting Driving License makes life difficult in UAE. I lived in Ajman/Sharjah for two years in four different accommodations. I was a bachelor working as Engineer in a Company.
Property agents preached these rules to us for Bachelor accommodations:-

i) Bachelors are not allowed to live in Society marked for Families and there is no Bachelors Accommodations in decent locations
ii) Bachelors can live in Industrial Areas which face frequent Electricity/Water supply Issues
iii) Contracts between Builder and Tenant will be authorized by  Municipality; without authorization it is not a valid contract. There is no Taxes in UAE but this authorization costs 5% of yearly Rental value, which is huge sum. More than the tax, I paid in my home country.

We were four bachelors working together in the same company. We found a 2BHK accommodation  and Builder committed us to get authorization from Municipality. It was before the recession hit the World Economy so Rents were very high. We agreed for a AED 46k yearly for that apartment, which included the overhead costs of cleaning etc. Builder charged us the 5% of this amount for authorization. But to our surprise that authorization never happened. Rent is charged Quarterly in UAE. Tenant will pay the security, four post dated Bank Cheque to Builder for a years payment. Any cheque bounce is crime, same as other countries so once the agreement is signed it is difficult to come out of it. My friends told me that the security deposit is rarely paid back by builder.

In seventh month the builder informed us that Municipality is not authorizing the contract and there is a crackdown happening on bachelors living in these building so we have to vacate and move to other place. Later we understood that it is a kind of game that builders play. There was no such crackdown happening but real thing was that, Rent has increased and Builder was able to get more money for that apartment and in absence of contract we have nowhere to complain.

We found another apartment but more expensive than previous. We moved in new apartment and after three months, we can feel the impact of Recession. Rent prices had reduced, many peoples have left there cars on Airport parking and fled with their family. But damage had done to us, we do not have options to switch.

After these bitter experiences, I understood that it is better to find the sharing apartments on Monthly basis rather than sign a Contract with Builder.