The Real Estate Committee at Jeddah's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) has criticized the Ministry of Justice for its tardiness in producing the final text for the Unified Lease Contract. The contract, which will be binding for landlords and leaseholders, will define the precise terms of relationship between landlord and tenant, and address the problem of increasing numbers of tenants failing to pay rent on time. Abdullah Al-Ahmari, deputy head of the committee, supports the appointment of designated officials to certify landlord-tenant contracts, similar to the role of a “Mazun”, or marriage officiate, who certifies marriage contracts. The Ministry of Justice, however, wishes to see the new contracts certified by public notaries. Al-Ahmari said that the procedure suggested by the ministry would be time-consuming, placing further responsibility on public notaries who are already burdened with assessing bad debts due to tenants failing to pay rents amounting to more than SR2 billion. Al-Ahmari said the committee believed that the certifying of lease contracts by real estate offices mediating between landlord and tenant was a more suitable time-saving procedure for both parties. The unified contract guarantees landlords' financial rights should tenants fail to pay the rent agreed upon in the contract. It empowers the landlord to reoccupy his building or apartment if the tenant vacates the building without informing the landlord or returning the keys. In the new contract defaulters will be sued in Shariah courts which Al-Ahmari views as a lengthy procedure, instead proposing that litigation procedures be assigned to civil rights offices affiliated to the police as is currently the case. Committee members, lawyers and a group of real estate office owners attribute the growing increase in disputes between tenants and landlords to the lack of binding contracts. Adel Al-Saqa, a lawyer and member of the committee, said: “We disagree with the Ministry of Justice that the contract should be certified with a public notary and disputes between parties settled in Sharia courts. The common practice in many countries is for contracts to be written and certified by solicitors at law firms.” Mubti Al-Jahni and Mohsen Attas, owners of real estate offices, voiced the impracticality of the contracts due to the differences in building standards and specifications, making the standardization of buildings as set in the unified contract impossible. They also suggested that the contract stipulate a guarantor signature from the tenant's employer and a clause making it mandatory for the employer to pay the landlord any money owed by his employee. Saleh Ali Al-Turki, Chairman of the Board of Directors of JCCI, has asked authorities to speed up their issuing of the long-awaited contract and put an end to the ongoing controversy. Some landlords also wished to see a computer database containing a blacklist of all rent defaulters. Bad tenant debts currently amount to more than SR2 billion. Lafi Al-Fayedi and Mohsen Al-Attass, who both work in the field, say that 35 to 40 percent of tenants deliberately delay payment becau se the law prevents the landlord from disconnecting water and electricity from tenants' apartments. – Okaz/SG __
