Peninsula Report - British expat blames greedy agents for rising rents
I think this was posted the other day in Ql. Today Peninsula is reporting the same.
DOHA • Greedy landlords and commission-happy real estate agents are making life miserable for prospective tenants.
The situation has reached such a stage that many expatriates are leaving the country with their families in tow. This new phenomenon comes in addition to earlier examples of breadwinners sending their families back home or shifting to shared and cramped accommodation simply to stretch their hard-earned riyals.
A western expatriate, exasperated at the shenanigans of a landlord, has decided to move bag and baggage back to his native UK with his family.
Through a web posting, he takes up the story. "The price (for a villa) was a bargain," he stated. The man in question and his family fell so much in love with the villa, they were willing to pay the QR12,500 rent asked for as well as a three-month advance, making the total amount to be splashed out a hefty QR50,000.
He said: "I then received a call stating the landlord wanted QR14,000as it was a new contract." The expatriate, however, pointed out that the previous contract came into effect slightly more than three months ago, that is, in February.
Even though the expatriate said he could afford this revised amount, he was unwilling to shell out too much extra money from his own pocket to add to the QR10,000 provided by his firm as a housing allowance. Griping about the company, he said: "(Paying QR4,000 extra out of his own pocket) is unacceptable seeing as they are supposed to provide my housing. I came here by choice. I don't have to stay."
The expatriate said that even at QR14,000, given the present housing market, the amount is an acceptable price to pay for a villa which matched his standards. "But I refuse to add to an already over-inflated rental market, purely because of the greed of some landlords and agents," he said.
Apparently, this is not the only such case. Many expatriates are fleeing the country unable to cope with the high rentals and with landlords moving the goalposts at their own whim. Although a law is in place which does not allow rent increases of more than 10 per cent a year, this law is observed only in the breach.
Tales abound of families moving out as landlords raise rents by as much as 40 per cent.
The expatriate said that he did not want to be away from his family which would occur should he ship them back out to the UK while he stayed on in Qatar. He said as he had served in the military for 17 years, family time was precious to him.
Soem journalists I met said they wanted to do the rape story but when cops were contacted it appears subtle threats were made, scaring them off.
Yeah, found it funny too the paper took comments from the site but then are there copyright laws here??? Anyways, have to be careful what's posted here :(
Man you are one lucky person. you should be feeling proud of yourself that work is being plagiarised. Its not something that happens with everyone. Normally people dig old books, articles, magazines that have not appeared in SCOPUS and other research articles websites and then present them as their own.
The research and articles the leading scientists, philosophers, etc is plagiarised so maybe you are one of them. Your work is being published in of the leading newspapers in Qatar (for the record there are two english newspapers printed from Qatar)mYou can claim for damages and sue the paper for copyright content. Good luck in doing that.
Nice to see people getting articles and post from QL and republishing them as their own..Who knows maybe one day we will see a book taken from the stories on QL
Housing expenses problems are experienced by most of us, its a common story not only to expats, even to nationals. But the police doing nothing thread of a rape case is a single incident post at QL, and how many of us here knows the story behind the story?
it's funny how they are quick to pick up story on housing expenses, yet did nothing about the thread of police doing nothing in a rape case.
lmao@peninsula's standard of journalism.
'never spoil a good story with the facts'
boom! boom!
[img_assist|nid=18179|title=jauntie|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=180|height=135]
You must have a very important message to contact media! hmmmm!!! Be careful okay? ;-)
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig 2 graves...
Then I should expect friendship msg from him now coz he is my buddy!
Hi Buddy,
PM me, got something to share before its too late:)
You don't know who's working in media here? you should know by now! Last time I heard, he regards himself as one of the administrator in QL. ;-)
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig 2 graves...
yv2r
Now a days many entries coming with a specific groups,recently for a any Piolt wives.
Any GPA holderfor this ????
Any genuine journalist here? send me PM, got something to share w/ you, but your authenticity is a must!
I repeat, i am looking for Journalist and NOT friendship msg, OK?
No. I am his likely Power of Attorney
I'm in the middle of a book about an Englsh spy at the moment, and she was employed with a newspaper during WW2 to do just that! Bogus stories in her newspaper deliberately intended to put the enemy off track. Probably happens to this day!
[img_assist|nid=18179|title=jauntie|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=180|height=135]
Yes, I saw a whole tent city on the way out to Dukhan. Garvey's is hosting a fund raiser.
It's poor that their research consisted of finding the post on the forum and then printing it.
Could be fun to make fake posts and then see what bizarre (untrue) stories we could get into the papers.
For example have you heard that british expats have taken to living in tents because of the rising property prices.
I went to the Peninsula newspaper on line site and there were quite a few articles in their recent archives on this subject, so no surprise they picked up on your comments.
Must say I also noted that you were depicted as a man with money to spare! ;o)
[img_assist|nid=18179|title=jauntie|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=180|height=135]
Im not happy with the message being printed in the newspaper but im pretty sure they are allowed to do it.
They misinterpreted things a little though:
They said:
"Even though the expatriate said he could afford this revised amount".
What I said was,
("I could pay the extra!") Meaning if i did pay the extra i would be severely out of pocket. Truth is when i'd done the maths i couldnt afford it.
They said
" The expatriate said that even at QR14,000, given the present housing market, the amount is an acceptable price to pay for a villa which matched his standards. "
I actually said
(" Some people will probably say that 14000, is about the right price for a good Villa ")
14000 is probably about right for this type of Villa in the current market,( in the current Qatar Market), but that doesnt make it right. 12,500 was a bargain by todays prices but would have been ridiculous 12 months ago. At no time did i mention "my standards" and this annoys me. Really annoys me, because i never said it, its a fabrication. How does the Paper know my standards?
They said,
Griping about the company, he said: "(Paying QR4,000 extra out of his own pocket) is unacceptable seeing as they are supposed to provide my housing. I came here by choice. I don't have to stay."
This was not a gripe. This is fact. 10,000 riyals does not get you a family home, for a wife and 2 children in Doha.
Anyway enough time spent on this. Im going to think long and hard before posting on here again. This was a lesson learnt
[img_assist|nid=17864|title=Chicks dig Guys with skills|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=440|height=440]
Darude
im okay, good morning!
sl
now you are talking in darude's behalf, are you his lawyer?
Wrong. I don't need that. Neither DaRuDe.
how are you doing
well no comment dont like reading stories.
[img_assist|nid=13339|title=.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=180|height=180]
sl
everyone in this world needs that.
Who needs responsible journalism? responsible Journalism - my foot
but i think that is not a reponsible journalism, just taking a comment word for word without even knowing the validity of the statement from the person itself?
Yes they can pwb, anything written on a public forum is free pickings for whoever wants it. The only one who might have a say is Qatari if he complains that QL wasn't mentioned as the source of the comments.
[img_assist|nid=13228|title=I feel your scorn and I accept it-Jon Stewart|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=180|height=180]
That's odd that someone from the newspaper would just take your story and not even question its validity or ask you any questions? Not saying your story is made up at all but what's that say about journalism? And can they just copy you word-for-word like that without your permission?
Lot's of things are lifted verbatim from here. A lot of the local journalists consider QL a great site to keep up with what's happening in Doha without actually doing any real work.
[img_assist|nid=13228|title=I feel your scorn and I accept it-Jon Stewart|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=180|height=180]
about some of the other things said on here. To be honest if something is said on an internet site then I believe it CAN be found just by searching the internet.
I typed my name into my browser the other day, and it came up with a comment I had posted on a UK BBC Newsnight website!!!!
That said, remind me to be very careful what I put my name to on here! OR ANYWHERE!!!
(gulp)
[img_assist|nid=18179|title=jauntie|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=180|height=135]
I dunno about that. I just saw this posting on the Peninsula website and pasted it over here. I remember I had read this the other day in QL.
Its possible that it can be lifted directly from the site
I asure you i am no newspaper journalist. Im pretty disgusted that my comments made on a chat forum have been lifted almost word for word and used in a news paper article without my permission. However that may be the legal right out here. I didnt name names or or use my companies details so ive nothing to hide. My gripes are genuine and honest.
[img_assist|nid=17864|title=Chicks dig Guys with skills|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=440|height=440]
A mole in our midst? lol
It's good that the newspaper is bringing it to the attention of it's readers. Just looks weird that the article has taken almost verbatum what Marty said in here. Oh - it says 'through a net posting'. I guess if I were to type the words 'qatar rising house prices upsets expats' or something like that into my browser it would throw up Martys post if any of the same words were there. oh well maybe that's how the info came to the Peninsula's hands. No point speculating - good article anyway.
[img_assist|nid=18179|title=jauntie|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=180|height=135]
or better yet..we have a member here working for the newspaper?
that's pretty scary huh..
Is that an extract from a Qatar Newspaper, stealth? And if so, were the comments by the expat (can't remember his name off hand) lifted directly from this site????? Or did he volunteer the info.
You have me worried now, that anything said in here can be copied by someone to a newspaper - maybe I just don't understand.
[img_assist|nid=18179|title=jauntie|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=180|height=135]