Unregistered lease agreements under lens

MUSCAT, DEC 10 - Muscat Municipality and Oman Investment and Finance Company (OIFC) will work together to check unregistered leases and evasion of fees. The agreement for cooperation was signed by Moshin bin Mohammed al Shaikh, Chairman of Muscat Municipality, and Nasser bin Mohammed al Harthi, Chairman of OIFC, at the municipality headquarters in Darsait on Monday.
Commenting on the initiative, Al Harthi said that the company will contribute to speed up the municipality’s collection of rental fees. “The company has resources and technical expertise over the last four decades in such work. It is one of the oldest companies operating in the Sultanate providing meter reading services and collecting invoices related to electricity and water.”
It was agreed that the process of collection of fees to be divided into two phases. The first is to collect data on owners and tenants. The company provides field survey services and collects information about owners and tenants.
The unregistered contracts shall be referred to the competent authorities to demand the registration of leases and payment of the prescribed fees.
Field survey services include the setting up of a database that can be used for a variety of purposes. These data include the name of landlord, his telephone number, tenant name, type of property use, address, electricity and water account number, and details of the electricity and water consumption.
The second phase includes the collection of fees. OIFC will assist in registering all electricity and water bills on behalf of the lessee under the lease contract registered with the municipality as per Royal Decree No 6/89 and its amendments regarding regulating the relationship between landlords and tenants, and registering their leases.