Families face air-conditioning shutdown despite paying bills

Up to 65 families face the heat after cooling provider threatens to cut off whole building for unpaid bills and fees.

A building at Discovery Gardens in Dubai, where the tenants and owners of one building face having their air conditioning turned off. Sarah Dea / The National

DUBAI // More than 65 families are worried their air conditioning will be shut off on Monday after a district cooling provider warned of disconnection for unpaid bills.

The tenants and owners of a Discovery Gardens building said it was unfair for such an essential service to be suspended for all the apartments when many had paid their annual rents and service fees.

“I pay fees punctually so I’m shocked that they can cut this for everybody. People who pay should not be punished,” said A J A, a resident of building No 61.

“A whole building should not be punished. It’s unacceptable. The ones who don’t pay can be taken to court, but you cannot cut off everybody’s air conditioning.”

The area uses “district cooling” – a plant-based method for producing and supplying cooled water for use in air-conditioning systems.

Owners said they paid annual service charges of about Dh22,000, including about Dh900 in monthly chiller fees.

A disconnection notice was pasted on the front doors of building No 61 last week from Palm District Cooling, the service provider for air conditioning to 290 Discovery Gardens buildings.

“We write to urgently bring to your attention the fact that there is outstanding on your account which has been outstanding for a period [in] excess of your agreed payment terms,” said the PDC notice to Nakheel Owners Association.

“You are therefore kindly requested to clear the full outstanding dues by Nov 9, 2014, failure to receive the payment will lead to disconnection of chilled water services on Nov 10, 2014.”

As of Sunday, the arrears had not been cleared.

“No payment has been received; we cannot confirm if it will be switched off,” said a PDC customer service officer.

However, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, or Rera, argued the cooling should not be shut off.

“Rera, the regulatory arm of Dubai Land Department, has sent an official letter to Palm District Cooling that they need to refrain from cutting any public utilities services for real estate units or resort to any ways that were not determined in the law to demand services fees,” said a Rera spokesman on Sunday.

“Dubai Land Department confirms that it is prohibited to cut services of leased property, and tenants should not be banned from using the facilities in any possible way. In such situations, the tenant can proceed to the Rental Dispute Centre to issue an immediate and urgent decision to prevent that from happening.”

A list of 26 owners with overdue service fees was put up on the building noticeboard. It shows five with unpaid fees of about Dh100,000, and other debts ranging from Dh85,000 down to Dh12,000.

A Nakheel spokeswoman said there were millions of dirhams outstanding in unpaid service charges.

“Only by collecting these fees can we ensure that there are adequate funds in the Owners’ Association account to prevent suppliers – such as Palm District Cooling – stopping their services,” she said.

“Service fee payment is the responsibility of each owner to ensure continuation of services throughout the building. Non-payment can affect all owners and residents – including those who make regular payments.”

There have been several similar standoffs with developers over the past three years. Villas in Jumeirah Islands had the chiller switched off; access to community pools and gyms was cut off by Nakheel on Palm Jumeirah; and Emaar threatened to stop rubbish collection in Springs and Lakes villas.