«Dubai Lands»: nuisance over the phone exposes its owner to imprisonment or a fine of up to 200,000 dirhams

Investors complain about phone calls pursued by real estate marketers

• Investors demanded more controls that guarantee the privacy of individuals.

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• Saleh Tabakh: “Sometimes the customer is deluded that the caller represents a well-known development company, when in fact the caller is a real estate promoter.”

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Investors interested in buying real estate said that they constantly receive phone calls from marketers of real estate companies promoting properties in Dubai, asking regulators for more controls to ensure the privacy of individuals.

For their part, real estate agents considered that displaying and promoting real estate over the phone is a disparagement of the developer's reputation and harms the company's reputation, and is a violation of privacy and an insult to the project being marketed, calling for an end to this problem, and obligating real estate promoters to conduct training courses on how to market projects and communicate with customers.

In turn, the Dubai Land Department confirmed to "Emirates Today" that marketing real estate over the phone in a way that disturbs and harms others exposes its owner to imprisonment for a period of no more than a year or a fine of up to 200,000 dirhams.

continuous calls

In detail, the investor, who preferred to introduce herself as (Umm Yassin), said: "She constantly receives marketing calls from a company that promotes villas in a project in the new areas of Dubai."

She added that she "suffered from being besieged by the company, as she put it, just because she went to inspect the site, where the representative calls her daily to convince her to buy in the project, and she is close to signing the purchase contract to get rid of the inconveniences."

Regulations

The investor, Mohammed Salem, confirmed that he "also receives continuous calls from marketers in a real estate company, with the aim of promoting specific real estate projects in Dubai," calling for more controls that guarantee the privacy of individuals.

The investor, Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, also confirmed that "he also receives frequent calls from external numbers to promote real estate inside and outside the country, especially in Dubai," calling on the regulators to stop these promoters.

Law

For its part, the Dubai Land Department (Dubai Lands) reported that the abuses committed by some real estate marketers over the phone could put them under the law, stressing that marketing real estate in a way that harms others is prohibited in the Emirates, and exposes its owner to imprisonment for a period of time not exceeding One year or a fine of a minimum of 50 thousand dirhams and up to 200 thousand dirhams.

privacy violation

In addition, the managing director of Harbor Real Estate Company, Muhannad Al-Wadih, said that “the pursuit of investors by real estate promoters over the phone should be stopped within the means of marketing and promotion,” describing it as “very bad.”

Al-Wadiya added that it "is a violation of privacy, and the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), the regulatory arm of Dubai Lands, has always warned of it, as it is trying to prevent it from having more controls," but he stressed that "we cannot throw the entire burden on (RERA), and the Real estate developers have to have a higher commitment and professionalism to deal with market developments amid changing marketing methods around the world.”

to caution

In turn, he advised the Chairman of the Board of Directors of "W Capital" real estate brokerage, Walid Al-Zarouni, to be wary of real estate marketing methods via telephones from unknown numbers.

Al-Zarouni stated that "recently, there has been an increase in the complaints of dealers and investors about the increase in the number of anonymous phone calls that reach them on a daily basis and cause a state of inconvenience, in an attempt to promote some real estate projects in Dubai, whether selling apartments, villas or commercial stores."

Ongoing complaints

For his part, the real estate expert, Muhammad Al Ali, said that “there are continuous complaints from real estate promoters via the mobile phone, because it causes inconvenience and embarrassment for some customers who do not want to buy, and it includes many inconveniences.”

Al Ali explained that “the promoting companies build on the theory of probability, that there are some possibilities of these calls in achieving sales,” but he stated that “this harms the reputation of the company.”

training

In the same context, the General Director of the "Royal Liwan" Real Estate Company, Muhammad Hareb, demanded that controls be put in place by the competent authorities to know the mechanism and how to communicate and reach investors, as there are several other ways to reach the investor through social media and text messages, but by calling Claiming that it is from one of the developing companies, and it is in fact a real estate broker, calls for putting an end to this problem and imposing deterrent penalties, and obligating real estate promoters to conduct training and educational courses on how to market projects and communicate with customers.

real estate promoter

The CEO of "Courtyard" Real Estate Development Company, Saleh Tabakh, said that "the problem with these calls is that real estate promoters communicate with the target customer at a time of choosing the broker, without disclosing the source of obtaining the customer's number."

He added, "Most of the time, the customer is deluded that the caller represents a well-known real estate development company, while in fact the caller is a real estate promoter who has purchased a list of numbers and general information from an unknown source," noting that this method is not desirable and ineffective at all.

Tabakh stressed that "in general, telemarketing is considered an inconvenience to the customer's privacy, and an insult to the project being marketed for."

• Realtors considered promoting real estate over the phone as a disparagement of the developer's reputation and a violation of privacy.

piracy

Walid Al-Zarouni, Chairman of the Board of Directors of "W Capital" real estate brokerage, pointed out that some real estate brokers have lists of clients' names and phone numbers, considering that this is illegal.

He said that "some calls may be a piracy process via mobile phones to seize data and financial balances in phone wallets," noting that smart phones have the feature of knowing the country code from which the call came, so it is advised not to answer a questionable number from abroad.

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