In 2001, Bahrain’s government changed the law to allow expats to buy houses in certain developments.
The main two at the time were Amwaj and Durrat, although there have been many more since.
I took advantage of the change and purchased a house in Amwaj.
It was a no brainer decision. All you had to do was find a deposit from your savings and you pay the mortgage each month from your housing allowance given to you by your company to pay rent.
Unfortunately in the boom that followed some developments did not go according to plan, and some unlucky people put down large amounts of money in developments that went bust.
I have friends who have laid out large amounts of cash in developments such as Marina West and Amwaj Gateway which have been stalled for many years and still see no immediate prospect of completion.
I was one of the lucky ones in that my development of Al Marsa Floating City was completed on time and we were able to move into our house nearly 10 years ago.
We have certainly enjoyed the house since then, but are now about to encounter another fundamental problem which has not yet been resolved.
When I purchased my property I had to pay a percentage of the price for ongoing maintenance, which was to last for 10 years.
This fund was to pay for the upkeep of the shared facilities, which in our case is mainly the upkeep of canal and lock gates.
As all purchasers had to pay the fee it was very easy for the developer to collect.
Now however we are getting into a position when the initial fund is running out and needs to be replenished.
We will have to pay two amounts, one for the general fund for the whole of Amwaj, which includes security and general landscaping, and the second for the Floating City canals etc.
The problem will be in collecting this money.
There are many houses owned on Floating City by people who will simply not pay, either because they do not understand why they need to pay, or they just won’t.
In properties such as a common block of flats you can disable their lift access card and parking cards to encourage them to pay but in Floating City we don’t have lifts or restricted parking.
We could stop their access through the lock gates to the sea but if they do not have a boat then this will not work.
The answer is to form a Home Owners’ Association (HOA) with legal powers to collect the fees but yet again we have been frustrated because Bahrain law has not yet caught up with these new developments.
While you can legally form a HOA for a single block of flats there is no such legislation for a development of many individual houses.
I understand that the Amwaj developers are working on this with the government and can only hope that a solution is found soon because if some do not pay then others who are willing to pay will not be happy about doing so.
Therefore, there will not be enough money to keep the common infrastructure maintained.
This would inevitably have a knock-on effect on the resale and rental values of our properties and that will affect everyone.
Jackie@JBeedie.com