Dubai: Three developers fined Dh500,000 each for violating real estate law

Three developers in Dubai have been penalized Dh500,000 each for advertising and marketing off-plan property projects within the emirate without going through the necessary registration processes. The Dubai Land Department (DLD) did not disclose the identity of the developers but said they had broken the law on real estate development escrow accounts. A real estate escrow account refers to an account of a real estate development, whereby the monies received from buyers of off-plan units are held. The following account is to control the construction of the units sold to the public to protect the investors. Ali Abdullah Al Ali, the director of the Real Estate Control Department, encouraged investors to ensure that the off-plan projects are authorized and are integrated with an escrow account. They can verify this using the DLD’s Dubai REST application. “One thing that the investors should not be involved in is to make any payments outside the project’s escrow account,” he added .