Dh500 fine for balcony drying, barbecue from March

Residents of Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Lakes Tower, International City and Discovery Gardens will start getting fines from March if they are found hanging clothes or having a barbecue on their balcony, 'Emirates24|7' can reveal.

Trakhees, the organisational arm of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, supervises residential communities, which also includes Jumeirah Heights, Jumeirah Village and Jebel Ali Downtown, will end its awareness campaign that started in October last year by month-end.

“We will end our awareness campaign by end-February and start issuing fines to those not obeying the law from March,” a company spokesman told this website.

In November, the Community Conformance Division of Trakhees had informed residents not to fix satellite dishes on the facades or balconies of their buildings; not to use balconies as places of storage for any purpose other than seasonal furniture pieces; not to hang sheets, clothes or curtains or rugs or mops or laundry on balconies or railings of homes and not to have barbecues in their balconies.

The authority says it has undertaken a comprehensive community-based awareness campaign that includes a range of awareness-raising posters and brochures in five languages: Arabic, English, Hindi, Urdu, and Chinese. Those failing to follow the rules would face a fine Dh500 per offence.

Separately, tenants breaching the occupancy limit regulation set up Trakhees could face fines of up to Dh50,000. The maximum allowable occupancy limit for apartments is one person per 200 square feet from the total property area.