Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — Ejar inspection teams at the Ministry of Housing have so far conducted 6,000 tours — about 2,250 in Riyadh — in response to complaints received from tenants.

Ejar is the online system launched by the Ministry of Housing to moderate relationship between tenants, landlords and brokerage offices.

The two main violations documented during the inspection tours include not uploading contracts at Ejar and taking a commission more than 2.5 percent.

Other violations include involvement of non-Saudis in brokerage activities, taking a commission to renew contracts, and doing other commercial activities other than brokerage.

Ejar now has a Real Estate Brokerage app that can be downloaded on smartphones. Both tenants and landlords may file complaints to the monitoring team at Ejar through the app. Users can also attach photos to demonstrate violations. The application also provides a database for certified real estate brokerage.

The investigations are meant to ensure that real estate brokerage offices do follow the regulations and are using the system to document contracts in a way that protects the rights of all parties involved. This should moderate the relations between tenants, brokerage offices and landlords through documented contracts, ensure there will be an organized and sustainable sector, reduce the number of dispute cases at courts and contribute to the national income said Saif Al-Suwailim, spokesman of the Ministry of Housing.

Ejar system needs four steps only: registering the information of the tenant, the landlord, the property and the contract details. After that, the information is sent to the Abshir portal for confirmation. Users can now register the data in less than 8 minutes through www.ejar.sa. It is also possible to pay online through Abshir system. The system also added an option to deal with exceptional cases like tenants who do not have Abshir accounts.

Each brokerage office should register at Ejar online system, take the necessary online training and get an official approval from authorities. To obtain the approval the office needs to provide a commercial license and a national address of the property.