Questions & Answers
Claiming refund of property from a developer who fled the country
I have booked an apartment in Ajman in a project and I have already paid 90% of the payment.
The builder's name is [-------], and now they have stopped the project for 6 years.
Please let me know how I can recover my money.
Dear Questioner,
Definitely, we can help you to recover your money. Please feel free to contact us in case of any query.
Kindly contact us on the phone for a detailed discussion or write to us at our email for further assistance.
Dear Sir/ Madam,
Thank you for reaching out to me on this.
Such cases are very rampant in the UAE and trust that there are laws and regulations in place to protect the buyers in such situations.
Firstly, I would need to review your Sale & Purchase Agreement to advise better.
Under any circumstances, you will need to issue a notice to the developer to terminate the agreement and seek a refund of funds along with compensation due to delay in completing and handover of the project.
Thereafter, you will have to file a civil case before the court (or arbitration, depending on the agreement) to litigate the dispute and seek funds from the Developer.
Since you have performed your part of the obligation under the agreement and the developer has miserably defaulted, you have a good stake at your claim before the court.
You can email me your Sale and Purchase Agreement for my review and we can take it from there.
I trust you will find this helpful.
Regards,
Hari Wadhwana
Dear Sir/Madam,
I understand your situation, first, you can make a compensation claim against the developer. The delay is a breach of contract.
Secondly, you can seek a legal remedy before the court concerned and request the court to terminate the contract and refund money in full. You can also seek proper compensation for damages incurred.
If the developer fails to perform his duty as per the agreed terms, then the purchaser has two options under Article (246) of the UAE Civil Code.
1. To terminate the agreement
2. To claim compensation for such delay
To comment further in this matter, we need to review the SPA to give you full advice.
You can email me all the details. Please feel free to contact us by phone as well for further assistant and clarification.
Regards.
