House Inspection Cost - Early Termination Fee
Hi, I need to understand if a person is leaving the country for good, should he/she pay the early termination fee. I am leaving the country and moving to a different country for a better opportunity however my landlord still wants to charge for early contract termination penalty for one month. Also when they did the house inspection they are expecting everything to be new and if not wants to pay us the price for everything. Land Lord is not considering wear and tear of any furniture and expecting to pay full amount of each item e.g. mattress, sofa (pen marks made by kids). I understand if someone is staying for less than 1 year they are liable to pay full price for the items however I have been staying for 3 years. Is there a way I can file a case against the land lord ? If yes where should I go. I heard there is Doha Rental Department who can handle this case. Please advise. Regards, Nazim Shaikh
Thanks for the comments. Will see what happens.
About the one month penalty, it totally depends on your contract terms and condition. As I know, generally all contract has this termination clause.
About furniture, they do add this line that while leaving the place, it should be exactly as it was handed over. So honestly it depends on the type of company you are dealing with. Good companies will consider this wear and tear and will understand stuff. Others will just try to exploit the situation.
No harm in trying to fight your case but 2 needs to be considered.
1- Did you register/stamped your contract in municipality?
2- If these conditions are part of contract or not?
Answers to them will let you know if you are going to win this or not.
You could take the matter to Rental Dispute Authority. Their office is very close to Holiday Villa. Try taking along with you someone who speaks good Arabic. No one at Qatar Living to my knowledge has so far written about their experience at the above office as such I am not sure how far you will be successful.
Sadly this is normal practice here.. the landlords and agents know thwy can make money from tenants in their difficulty.