Rental Dispute Committees set to enhance its accessibility for users

The Rental Dispute Committees that pertain to the Ministry of Municipality have recently introduced new electronic financial services, including electronic deposits, which allow applicants to transfer monthly rent payments via an electronic link, sent to them through various means according to their preference.

Speaking to local Arabic daily Arrayah, Rosa al-Shammari, Head of the Office of the Rental Dispute Resolution Committees Headquarters said that the applicants can call the service on 184 to receive the link or obtain it in person, saving time and effort. Besides, the Committees launched a 24/7 instant transfer service, allowing the monthly rent deposit to be transferred to the applicant's account and accessible on the same day the request is submitted. She explained that the guide to the rights and duties of landlords and tenants is currently under review, with a proposal to have it available in multiple languages, including Arabic and English, and it is expected to be launched in the first quarter of next year.

However, currently to submit an application to open a rental dispute case, the rental have to go to the committees headquarters, but in the near future this service will be available online. It takes around one week or a maximum of fourteen days to set a date for the first session for a submitted dispute. Besides, there are dedicated counters to receive the applications and requests of the elderly and the persons with special needs.

The committees resolved 3,598 related cases in 2023 with an accomplish rate of around 90% of the received cases. Most of these cases were regarding unpaid rental value. For regular cases, it takes around 21 days to resolve them and some of these cases are resolved from the first session. However, when the case requires engineering or accounting technical expertise, the case can take up to three months to resolve.

She pointed out that it has been turned out that around 15% of the received disputes are often resolved through friendly reconciliation among the parties of the dispute. Accordingly, there are plans to launch an office for reconciliation, which would eventually reduce the time of litigation among the litigators.