Saudi national Muhammad Dhafer Abu Hatlah may finally get a chance to build on his own land, after being denied a chance to do so for five years by the Ahad Rufaidah Municipality. He had been granted the right to build by the courts, but the municipality had refused to comply with the verdicts, arguing that the land was zoned for a girl's school. Now it appears that the municipality has made a complete blunder in the matter, and that the girl's school was supposed to be built in another area. In 2005, Abu Hatlah submitted an application for a permit to build a house on his father's residential plot that he now owns, according to a title deed issued in 1996 from the Ahad Rufaidah Court and supported by the Court of Cassation. However, he was surprised by the municipality's refusal to grant him a building permit, under the pretext that the site had been allocated for Girls' Education. Abu Hatlah said he was forced to file a complaint with the Board of Grievances, which also issued a verdict that he be issued a building permit. The Board's decision was binding and should be complied with, he said. “After that, I submitted an application to the Head of Ahad Rufaidah Municipality to implement the Board of Grievances verdict, but he referred my transaction to the region's mayoralty, which has not issued directives to carry out the decision. So I submitted my documents to the Supreme Court to look into the matter and study the verdict.” He said the Supreme Court supported the decision of the Administrative Court and Court of Cassation. Abu Hatlah said the site was surveyed, but the Licence Department in the municipality had refused to grant him a building permit. It then turned out that the site allocated for Girls' Education was in another planned district. Salim Bin Muneef, Head of the Ahad Rufaidah Municipality, with the matter, who has now asked Abu Hatlah to visit the municipality to obtain a building permit for his plot.
