Local woman leads 20 yearlong legal battle for houses, fails

DT News Network

news@dt.bh

Manama

Two decades of legal battle has ended up in vain for Um Adel, with she remains without a roof of security over her head at the end of the day. She claims she had lost two houses following a technical error caused by the Minister of Housing, which has landed her in state of dilemma as she lost her marriage and the future of her children hangs in the balance.

Um Adel, a Bahraini citizen was living the dream in 1986 when she and her husband were granted a housing unit. The family lived in the house for 8 years until the whole ordeal started in 1994 when they traveled to UAE once and returned to find that the house they were living in was given to another family as the result of an error.

Determined to get the house back, Um Adel took to the matter to court right away and the case dragged on until 2005 only to end with disappointment.

After repeated visits to court offices, Housing Ministry and the Supreme Council for Women, the case ended with a promise of a second house along with a provision of rent fees.

Her husband and Um are both unemployed. The family jumped from apartment to apartment, and the turmoil started spreading to their marital, which led to their divorce in 2014.

Now the responsibility of taking care of her five children, 3 of which are girls and 2 boys, one of the girls is born autistic, lies with her. All of them are unemployed, her oldest son being 32 years old.

Finally, she got the break she needed when she was informed that the new house was completed and would be allocated for her and her family by April 2015.

Filled with joy, Um Adel went to the ministry to obtain the address of the new house but strangely she wasn’t offered a contract to sign.

Sadly the joy was short-lived when Um Adel was shocked to find people already living in the house for three months and they had the contract for it.

It turned out that the Housing Ministry gave the house to the current residents before Um. She claimed that the housing ministry apologized and told her they made an error and will give her another house, informing her that they found a house for her but it is too old and needs renovation. They would require around 4 months to inform her about the status of the house.

Furthermore, Um Adel said that the ministry has stopped providing rent fees for the past 9 months. She was left distressed, as she could not manage to pay for rent for months while the owner of the apartment urges her to leave soon.

Speaking to Um Adel, she expressed her sorrow and broken spirits as she said, “It has been 21 years of waiting and promises made has brought us nothing but time loss and no home for my children and myself to go back to.”

Um Adel is pleading for help from the wise leadership to attend to her case and help her and her family through this difficult situation.