DUBAI More and more empty villas in New Dubai area are being left unlocked by callous real estate agents and property owners. These villas in turn are being misused by teenagers who are vandalising these properties and using it is as a hide-out to smoke cigarettes and shisha inside.
Take the case of an Arabian Ranches resident - Gaelin Grey – whose villa was vandalised with obscene graffiti when she bought it last year. “The house had been left empty for years and when we went to see it there was obscene graffiti drawn on the walls. There were shisha burn marks on the tiles in the kitchen. Some of the window panes too were broken and we had to fix everything,” said the South African expat.
Quick notification
“We bought the house on October 6, 2013 and just after two days we received a notification from Emaar to immediately erase the graffiti on the walls or face a hefty fine,” she said.
Another Meadows resident said when she was hunting for homes in various New Dubai communities, she found many vacant villas unlocked. XPRESS did a random check of five empty villas and found three of them open in just one community -- Meadows. In one villa, the front door was unlocked and in the other two, the back door entrance was left unsecured.
“Leaving empty villas unlocked seems to be a trend these days with real estate agents unfortunately,” said Mohanad Alwadiya, Managing Director, Harbor Real Estate. “This is not at all in line with right brokerage practices,” added Alwadiya.
