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What a turn-around!

Dubai: There is no "one villa, one family" rule in Dubai and the campaign against overcrowded villas has been misunderstood, a top civil official said on Sunday.

The municipality has started a campaign against overcrowding in villas to ensure the safety and security of residents," clarified Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of the Dubai Municipality.

He said the campaign was targeted against high numbers of people living in villas meant for smaller numbers.

He said the municipality did not have any problem with more than one family living in a villa, provided it was big enough.

"Families sharing a villa have to seek permission from the municipality to know whether a villa is big enough to accommodate a certain number of people," he added.

So, go the RTA way! Register cars for car-pooling/sharing service and do the same with housing.

We got it wrong again, causing ourselves unnecessary problems.

I can't believe how many times we get things wrong, misunderstand the facts, cause unnecessary problems for ourselves and others.

We caused problems for the RTA over Salik. We caused problems for the EIDA over the ID card.

Now we've misunderstood the 'One Villa - One Family' campaign.

We believed that 'one villa one family' meant, well, 'one villa one family'...but of course it didn't.

We misunderstood.

There is no "one villa, one family" rule in Dubai and the campaign against overcrowded villas has been misunderstood, a top civil official said on Sunday(February 1st).

In our defence I suppose our lack of understanding - and I know it's pushing the boundaries of credibility - but it just may have been based on the earlier official announcements and the facts on the ground.

The campaign was launched in April. By July there were reports that:

Families living in shared villa accommodations in the Jumeirah-1 and Abu Hail areas have been asked to vacate under Dubai Municipality's ongoing 'One Villa-One Family' campaign.

Since the launch of the campaign in April, almost 2,400 eviction notices have been served to families living in villas in the Rashidiya area, and water and electricity supply to 280 villas have been disconnected.

In September I reproduced a DM advertisement which clearly stated that within thirty days from that announcement it was obligatory to vacate multi-families.

And then on October 3, 2008:

The Municipality’s ‘One Villa, One Family’ campaign kicked off this week with inspectors combing through villas in Al Rashidiya area, an official said.

"We study every case individually. However, the rule we enforce is one family per villa.

"Family only refers to immediate family, as in father, mother, spouse, children, brother and sister. No uncles, cousins or in-laws."

He added that if the brother or sister of the resident was married and had his family living in the same house, then even that would be considered a violation of the law.

In November we read that:

Dubai Municipality is cutting power and water to as many as 200 villas a week in an attempt to evict people who are sharing homes, but some of the tenants are defying authorities and illegally reconnecting services, a senior official said yesterday.

I'm going to plead mitigating circumstances for my stupidity in thinking that this meant there was a rule that families cannot share accommodation.

You see, the campaign was entitled 'One Villa - One Family' and a senior official specified exactly how closely related family members needed to be to qualify. Services were cut off, people were evicted and fines up to Dh50,000 were imposed under the rule.

We stupidly misunderstood it all.

February 1st, 2009:

Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality said the municipality did not have any problem with more than one family living in a villa, provided it was big enough.

"The municipality has started a campaign against overcrowding in villas to ensure the safety and security of residents."


Now do you understand?

Chocoholic wrote:Idiots!

uaekid wrote:although I agree with you bcz we locals also get shocked by new laws toward us but I thought you were one of the ppl fighting for companies not to crowed their employees in big numbers in one house or room ,this is the main I dean and needed immediate attention as you said before!! Or have you changed your mind now. ?

what became normal to me is you consistently disagreeing with your own opinions on such issues !!!

quatroporte wrote:I heard that the reason why NOW the authorities are saying it was a misunderstanding and that families can share one villa because since the ban was started last year, many many villas became empty... as not everyone can afford to rent a 200K villa by himself...

so they published this article to ask people to return back. and blame it on us that we misunderstood

Chocoholic wrote:Living out of wedlock you see.

michaeldubai wrote:"Licence Must for Sharing Villas"

DUBAI - More than one family are allowed to share the same villa as long as it has been granted a licence to do so by the Dubai Municipality, an official has said.

The statement came as a clarification of an earlier statement by municipality chief Hussain Nasser Lootah that there is no ban on sharing of villas per se, but the drive is against overcrowding.