Any DAMAC Lake View Owners out there?

[Rammah]

Originally Posted by amidhadli

sorry you not important enough for me to visit you i only deal with chairmans or directors which are at my level not somone who just sits in an office without a title my problems are with damac and the person who owns this company as it is him who i paid not u u are just an employee of damac who doesnt mean a thing to me i paid for an apartment which should have been without defects and as i said before i had many and pictures to prove it you obviously dont have property out there so that really says it all unless you are the chairman or director of damac there is no need for you to get in to this

The above says it all to me, and I hope to all the others reading this and who matter to me.

Rammah
07825107389

[rmaher]

Hi,
I am being proposed an apartment in B2 Lake View Tower. Can you please tell me from your experience of any remaining problems with this development and realistic prices?

Is the property complete and occupied? Have all infrastructure connections by Deera been completed? Is rest of JLT development proceeding or halting becuase of financial downturn? Has rental prospects fallen in JLT area?

Any advice most welcome.

Pls mail me direct on: robtmaher@libero.it

Thanks

[revolutionary]

Originally Posted by rmaher

Hi,
I am being proposed an apartment in B2 Lake View Tower. Can you please tell me from your experience of any remaining problems with this development and realistic prices?

Is the property complete and occupied? Have all infrastructure connections by Deera been completed? Is rest of JLT development proceeding or halting becuase of financial downturn? Has rental prospects fallen in JLT area?

Any advice most welcome.

Pls mail me direct on: robtmaher@libero.it

Thanks

Remaining problems with this development are really only related to DAMAC and their callous disregard for contractual terms. They are wriggling over the maintenance arrangements right now, and no doubt will be very creative when it comes to the late delivery compensation. You may find your life far easier to wait for handover before purchase as this looks like coming within the next month. That will avoid the inevitable delays trying to process a new contract through DAMAC contracts team which can take best part of a year due to their normal attempts to rewrite contracts in their favour.

The common areas and apartments are basically complete apart from the penthouses and lofts. Not absolutely sure about water/electric/AC connections. The lake outside Lake View is only expected to be filled in early 2010 although the first of four lakes has just been completed elsewhere in JLT. This will be a building site for a few years yet - 2/3 years for the Wind Tower neighbours and possibly 4 years plus for the K plots across the lake which haven't yet started.

From others it appears that the going rate for complete apartments in JLT is about 1200 AED/sq.ft depending on quality and location. Best location and worst quality is probably Lake City, best Location & best quality probably Green Lakes. Lake View is probably somewhere in the middle. Location pretty good, quality not too bad, DAMAC really slippery.

[amidhadli]

Originally Posted by revolutionary

Remaining problems with this development are really only related to DAMAC and their callous disregard for contractual terms. They are wriggling over the maintenance arrangements right now, and no doubt will be very creative when it comes to the late delivery compensation. You may find your life far easier to wait for handover before purchase as this looks like coming within the next month. That will avoid the inevitable delays trying to process a new contract through DAMAC contracts team which can take best part of a year due to their normal attempts to rewrite contracts in their favour.

The common areas and apartments are basically complete apart from the penthouses and lofts. Not absolutely sure about water/electric/AC connections. The lake outside Lake View is only expected to be filled in early 2010 although the first of four lakes has just been completed elsewhere in JLT. This will be a building site for a few years yet - 2/3 years for the Wind Tower neighbours and possibly 4 years plus for the K plots across the lake which haven't yet started.

From others it appears that the going rate for complete apartments in JLT is about 1200 AED/sq.ft depending on quality and location. Best location and worst quality is probably Lake City, best Location & best quality probably Green Lakes. Lake View is probably somewhere in the middle. Location pretty good, quality not too bad, DAMAC really slippery.

hi any idea on what you paying per square for maintenance as i am paying less and my nephew who bought a year later is paying more and his contract also differenct and any idea what you being charged for parking as they want 75000 from me my nephew paid 45000 they originally offered to me at 50,000 on contract now wa nt to change thats how honest they are

[revolutionary]

Originally Posted by amidhadli

hi any idea on what you paying per square for maintenance as i am paying less and my nephew who bought a year later is paying more and his contract also differenct and any idea what you being charged for parking as they want 75000 from me my nephew paid 45000 they originally offered to me at 50,000 on contract now wa nt to change thats how honest they are

DAMAC will make you believe you have to accept their terms for any contract but ignore that and ideally get professional advice.

A lot depends on whether you are buying direct from DAMAC or are buying from an existing owner. If direct from DAMAC then they can set the terms but in the current market you really ought to dictate the terms you want. If from someone else then you are effectively buying their contract so you shouldn't have to accept any different terms from DAMAC although they will try.

The maintenance fees are all over the place - I've seen 3 different maxima per sq.ft. and therefore they should stick to the lowest maximum which seems to be 8. It is clearly not right for some units to be making a far greater proportional contribution to a common budget. That appears to be why they are now wriggling to get out of the maintenance obligation. They seem to have set it up originally in such a way that made it almost impossible for owners to get rid of them for the first 3 years but now it looks expensive for them they are trying to escape but are being extremely devious about it.

Car parking is also less than honorable. Fair enough that they could charge more now for additional space when the 45000 was originally described as a discounted price. However the market has gone down significantly. If I hadn't already booked my spot I would now choose not to pay for anything. The municipal code requires them to supply a parking space with every unit so you could just hold out and see what happens. There is always the metro and from what I've seen elsewhere, there are likely to be many free spaces that never get used. However when JLT really gets going in a few years time, the parking spaces will become like gold-dust.

[amidhadli]

Originally Posted by revolutionary

DAMAC will make you believe you have to accept their terms for any contract but ignore that and ideally get professional advice.

A lot depends on whether you are buying direct from DAMAC or are buying from an existing owner. If direct from DAMAC then they can set the terms but in the current market you really ought to dictate the terms you want. If from someone else then you are effectively buying their contract so you shouldn't have to accept any different terms from DAMAC although they will try.

The maintenance fees are all over the place - I've seen 3 different maxima per sq.ft. and therefore they should stick to the lowest maximum which seems to be 8. It is clearly not right for some units to be making a far greater proportional contribution to a common budget. That appears to be why they are now wriggling to get out of the maintenance obligation. They seem to have set it up originally in such a way that made it almost impossible for owners to get rid of them for the first 3 years but now it looks expensive for them they are trying to escape but are being extremely devious about it.

Car parking is also less than honorable. Fair enough that they could charge more now for additional space when the 45000 was originally described as a discounted price. However the market has gone down significantly. If I hadn't already booked my spot I would now choose not to pay for anything. The municipal code requires them to supply a parking space with every unit so you could just hold out and see what happens. There is always the metro and from what I've seen elsewhere, there are likely to be many free spaces that never get used. However when JLT really gets going in a few years time, the parking spaces will become like gold-dust.

thanks for that advice i have had email from another develper to say if we want to register our units with rera we have to pay the registration fee which is 2% does anyone know if this is true and has it happend to them i thought the developer has to register the units at their cost

who will be the managing agents if damac leave and can they do this

[sap001]

Originally Posted by amidhadli

thanks for that advice i have had email from another develper to say if we want to register our units with rera we have to pay the registration fee which is 2% does anyone know if this is true and has it happend to them i thought the developer has to register the units at their cost

who will be the managing agents if damac leave and can they do this

My understanding about the registration fee is that owner and developer each pay 1% ie total 2%. If I am wrong, can someone explain why?

[amidhadli]

Originally Posted by sap001

My understanding about the registration fee is that owner and developer each pay 1% ie total 2%. If I am wrong, can someone explain why?

thanks for that i have also emailed rera and gonna ring them tomorrow to confirm

[Dubaidizzy]

Hi. I am an owner in Lakepoint. Our contract states that registration is 1.5 % for us and 0.5 % for the developer. Also, regarding maintenance charges, in October we were asked to pay 23 AED Service charge and 4.57 AED A/C capacity charge per unit area! Our contract estimated 6 AED per sq ft. When I questioned this and asked for a breakdown of the costs, I was told to ignore the letter. I have been trying to find out what the actual charges are going to be, but, am getting no response. I would be intersted to hear if anyone is actually paying charges at Lakepoint and what they are, or current charges elsewhere in JLT? Thanks

Originally Posted by sap001

My understanding about the registration fee is that owner and developer each pay 1% ie total 2%. If I am wrong, can someone explain why?

[revolutionary]

It seems like all the developers are playing a game.

My personal opinion is that if the charge is not mentioned in the contract then you shouldn't need to pay it before acquiring your contracted apartment. However there have been regulatory changes and these could easily have been brought to our attention in line with our contracts under force majeure. Once the developer knew about new statutory payments, requirements for parking spaces etc that were beyond their control, they could easily have declared this and we wouldn't be grumbling against the developer rather the authority that was introducing such charges. I really see no reason why developers couldn't do this.

It strikes me that the developers are basically sneaking as many extra charges as they can get away with assuming that most people are not familiar with UAE legal processes and would rather not get entangled in a court case.