Undocumented house lease owners on Muscat Municipality radar

Muscat: Muscat Municipality is now working on tracking property owners and tenants who don’t have their lease agreements registered with the municipality.
That came after the Municipality of Muscat signed an agreement with Oman Investment and Finance Company on the project of collecting undocumented lease fees in the municipality.
According to officials, the project aims to determine unregistered lease contracts with the municipality.
The agreement was signed by Eng. Mohsen bin Mohammed Al Sheikh, Chairman of Muscat Municipality, and Nasser bin Mohammed Al Harthy, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company. In a statement, Muscat Municipality said, “The Municipality of Muscat signed an agreement with Oman Investment and Finance Company on the project of collecting undocumented lease fees in the municipality. The agreement, which extends to six months, aims at collecting the undocumented lease fees due by employing the company’s capabilities and expertise to work with the municipality.”
“The collection fees project is divided into two phases. The first is to collect data on owners and tenants. The company will provide field survey services and collect information on owners and tenants in the agreed areas by comparing the data provided by the municipality with data provided by the company,” the municipality added.
Therefore, the company can determine the leased properties that are not registered with the municipality.
The company will also follow up with the property’s owner and the tenant after examining the data and analysing it and finding the leased units without rental contracts registered with the municipality, the ministry explained.
Field survey services include the creation of a database that can be used for a variety of purposes. The data includes the name of the landlord, the tenant, the telephone number, type of property, address, building number, electricity and water account number, and an indication of the amount of electricity and water consumption.
The second phase of the project includes the collection of fees due to the municipality, whereby the company will assist in registering all electricity and water bills on behalf of the lessee under the lease contract registered with the municipality.
The signing of this agreement stems from Muscat Municipality’s keenness to regulate the relationship between tenants and owners of residential, commercial and industrial premises and the registration of their contracts in accordance with Diwan Decree No. 17/93 concerning the registration and renewal of leases.
Al Harthy said: “We are pleased to sign this agreement, whereby the company will contribute to the municipality’s efforts to speed up the process of collecting the lost rent fees due to the Muscat Municipality in the agreed areas.”