Muscat Municipality to track unregistered lease agreements

Eng Moshin al Sheikh, Chairman of the Municipality of Muscat, signed an agreement with Nasser bin Mohammed al Harthy, chairman of Oman Investment and Finance Company (OIFC) to collect the fees due to it
from the unregistered leases of the municipality.

The agreement will benefit from the company's capabilities and expertise to regulate the rental market and collection of fees and amounts due in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

As per the agreement, which is for a period of six months, both the municipality and the company will work on collecting the fees of the unregistered leases, which is due to the civic body, by employing the OIFC's capabilities and expertise in the field.

It was agreed to divide the work related to collection of fees in two phases. The first is to collect data on the owners and tenants. The company will conduct a survey and get information on owners and tenants in the agreed areas by comparing the data provided by the municipality with the leased properties that have been not registered with the municipality.
The company will then follow-up with the lessor and the tenant after examining the data about the rental contracts not registered with the municipality.

The company will then with the follow-up lessor and the tenant after examining the data about the rental contracts not registered with the municipality.

The case is then handed over to competent authorities to demand the registration of leases and payment of the prescribed fees.

Field survey services include the creation 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 ( way number, building number, among others), electricity and water account number, and details of the electricity and water consuption.

The second phase of the project includes the collection of fees due to the Municipality, whereby OIFC will assist in registering all electricity and water bills on behalf of the lessee under the lease contract registered with the Municipality.

The company will also provide services to communicate with the lessors or tenants through means of telephone calls, text messages, field visits or any other appropriate means for the purpose of reporting the need to register the leases and pay the fees due thereto.