ADJD, DTM partner to establish realty dispute resolution centre

ABU DHABI / WAM

The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) signed a cooperation agreement with Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT) for the establishment of a Real Estate Dispute Settlement Centre in Abu Dhabi.
The initiative is part of the endeavours undertaken to consolidate bilateral cooperation and strategic partnership with objective of establishing an integrated system capable of improving alternative solutions for the settlement of real estate disputes and reaching amicable agreements.
The agreement was signed for the ADJD, by Youssef Saeed Al-Abri, Undersecretary of the Judicial Department, and, for the Department of Municipalities and Transport, by
Abdullah Al Sahi, Acting Undersecretary of the DMT, during a signing ceremony that took place remotely through videoconferencing technology.
Youssef Al-Abri explained that the agreement aims to coordinate joint cooperation for the establishment of a Centre for the settlement of real estate disputes in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This Centre will have to deal with reconciliation matters in all real estate disputes, Al Abri added, and is meant to be an important step in support of the efforts made to enable the amicable settlement of disputes in implementation of the directives made by HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, and President of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, to foster reconciliation between litigants and encourage amicable settlement of disputes as part of the initiatives of ongoing development of the judicial system and support for business competitiveness in the emirate.
This cooperation agreement, Yousef Al-Abri said, lays the foundations for an effective partnership by setting up a comprehensive framework to define the mechanisms for the enforcement of the reconciliation agreements that are to take place at the proposed Real Estate Dispute Settlement Centre, determine the controls for the referral of files on which reconciliation proved to be impossible to the Judicial Department, the disputes that require the involvement of an ADJD-listed
expert, adopting a mechanism to submit the agreements signed by the parties to the competent judge for approval, in addition to preparing, training and accrediting real estate conciliators and qualifying them to work in the centre.

For his part, Abdullah Al-Sahi expressed his happiness to sign cooperation agreement, which is, he said, among priorities of Department of Municipalities and Transport to improve attractive real estate and investment environment of Abu Dhabi, thus helping to promote real estate dynamics and reduce number of cases brought before the courts.
He added that the Real Estate Dispute Settlement Centre, which will be announced soon, will include a group of qualified real estate conciliators with competence and sufficient experience qualifying them to settle the disputes in a manner that preserves the rights of all parties, as the said conciliators have undergone specialised courses to carry out their conciliation and reconciliation duties.