Page Clips, a new blog from two expats in Oman has made its debut this month.
Worth a read!
Another e-mail, same story.
We are the residents of Muscat Oasis Residents in Boucher. After the abnormal weather conditions that hit Oman in June 2007, the management in the compound started to increase rents for new renewals by at least 45%. After the cabinet decision to put the 15% cap on rents, the management just went crazy! They started to issue evacuation notice to tenants whom their contract is about to expire.
The reason for evacuation is “refurbishment”. Just to show that this is a false reason, some of the tenants got a letter of increasing the rent on 20th Sep 2007, and then they got the evacuation letter on 23rd Sep 2007. We have copies of these letters that was sent to many people. This might seem to be a specific issue, but if we look into it, we will find that many landlords will use such play in order to increase rents.
Landlord: Your rent has been increased by 50 percent from next month.
Tenant: Sorry, you can’t do it. There is a government cap of 15 percent on rents now.
Landlord: Ok, no problem. I am giving you three months notice as I am planning to take up major renovation work.
Tenant: &!@$^%?? (speechless)
Arghhhhhhhh!
This is a mail I received from a person in Muscat today. I know only one side of the story, so I don’t want to take sides at this stage. I have deleted the email ids and changed names to protect identities.
I had traveled by Jazeera Airways flight J9457 on 31st July from Mumbai to Muscat via Dubai. I had three luggage bags. From Dubai I had a transit flight to Muscat J9742. While boarding at Dubai airport for Muscat, I had inquired at the boarding counter whether my 3 luggage bags have been transferred in flight J9742 or not. Your officials said that all three baggage’s has been transferred. But when I reached at Muscat airport the situation was totally different. I received only 2 baggage’s. One of my baggage whose tag number Jxxxxx was still missing. I had my wife’s pregnancy medicines were for more than four months as those medicines are not available in Muscat. There were also new clothes which I had purchased and other stuffs.
I complained at the Muscat airport for my lost baggage. My complain number was Jxxx. I also send an email on 2nd August inquiring about my lost baggage at helpdesk@jazeeraairways.com. The same day I received an email from helpdesk@jazeeraairways.com saying that they are sorry for the inconvenience caused. They have forwarded my mail to Dubai office and will get back at the earliest. I waited for 2 days and then again on 4th of August I mailed them two times regarding my lost baggage. I also forwarded this message to all other emails I had for Jazeera Airways. On the same day I got reply from them just saying Thank You. I revert back saying that I need my baggage and not your thanks. They again replied me saying that they have forwarded my case to the right person and within short time they will reply me. All this happened on 4th of August.
After that waiting for almost a month for their reply I again send an email on 1st September inquiring about my baggage. Then I had called Mr. XYZ who is the duty manager at Mumbai Airport. He mailed to Ms. ABC regarding my case. He mailed her on 2nd September. I waited Ms. ABC to reply me back. On 8th September I send an email to Ms. ABC inquiring about the email which was sended by Mr. XYZ regarding my baggage but till today i.e. 18th September I don’t have any mail from them. Because of all this happened, my wife was not able to get the medicines and she had to undergo abortion. I have lost my first baby. I had also requested them in all my mails that the baggage is very much important to me. But there was no response from them.
After completing 45 days, I went to Jazeera Airways for claiming my baggage. The Country Manager Mr. MNO here in Oman said that after evaluating he can give me compensation of only OMR50 which is very less than what I had in that baggage. I asked him how he calculated. He said he can’t tell me how he calculated. You just sign the form and take OMR 50 and we will close the matter here. He also said that there are no rules for compensation for the baggage. You can only get what I decided. I rejected his offer. I asked him many times to give me an idea how you evaluated my baggage but he said he cant tell me.
According to our little birdie, last Saturday was an exception though. Forget the usual ‘houseful’ atmosphere, the attendance was very thin on the fateful day. Reason: a cricket match featuring India and Australia was on that evening.
Sometimes, even gods have to be at the mercy of cricket-crazy Indians!
A report says:
MUSCAT –– The Council of Ministers yesterday decided that rent for properties should not be increased by more than 15 per cent of the current rent value during the next two years.
This will provide citizens the much-needed respite from mindless rent hikes happening for the last one year. The rent cap of 15 percent holds good for existing tenants, but what will happen for people who want to move/shift to new premises wherein a new lease agreement will come into effect? I am sure the landlords will find some loopholes to beat the system. It so happened that recently a person changed his flat from third floor to second floor in the same building with same dimensions, and got his rent jacked up by RO 35 in the new agreement!
Who will bell the cat?
Cross-posted in Oman Community Blog