THERE is a prevalent trend among some landlords, which is: “Don't rent out to a Saudi.” Such a conviction is an existing reality whether we agree with it or not and it did not come from a vacuum. The distress experienced by some landlords at the hands of tenants is known to all. Landlords cannot discriminate against tenants because of the absence of a law to protect the rights of both landlords and tenants. There are stories that are played out on a daily basis in courts, human rights offices, police stations and governorates, and all the stories emphasize the fact that we are in urgent need of enacting a law with stringent provisions. I received a letter from a landlord in which he explained the financial losses and emotional stress he suffered at the hands of a tenant who refused to pay rent. How can a tenant be involved in such injustice under the guise of the law? The letter read as follows: “After getting old, my wife, who is a retired employee, and I pondered over our future and how we could continue to make a decent living. We found that the ideal way is to buy a residential property so that the rent could be used for our living as well as for the education of our children. “Accordingly, we bought a four-apartment building. At the outset, we decided to fix a very reasonable and modest rent so that our tenants would be satisfied and the apartments would not remain vacant. “Despite all of this, we were put to test by one of the tenants who leased two apartments but did not pay rent except for the first installment. In other words, I only got one six-month payment in two years. “He inflicted suffering on us in two ways. First, he defaulted and refused to clear dues and prevented me from making money from the apartment. “Secondly, he leveled false accusations against me and filed a complaint with the police claiming that I had verbally abused and humiliated him. That never happened. “He approached the concerned authorities with complaints against me simply because he wanted to live in my apartment free of cost for as long as possible. ”The problem is that I now have to report to police stations, human rights bodies and the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution and perhaps, in the future, in courts to fight these accusations. “All of this is meant to delay payment of dues owed to me by my tenant. This is the basic issue that I should not have forgotten but I have because I am preoccupied with how to handle the false charges of assault, verbal abuse and threats filed against me.” My final question is this: How can government agencies help those who snatch the rights of people and entertain such preposterous allegations when it is clear that they serve no purpose other than to help the tenant avoid paying what he owes?
