2010 and Zig Zag towers still aren’t finished.
You know, sometimes I just don’t understand why there isn’t much thought or heart that goes into projects, especially multi-million dollar projects. Let’s look at the Zig Zag tower. I own 4 apartments in this project. Why did I invest? For a few reasons. I loved the design. It’s a unique building (the world’s tallest leaning residential structure), the views were beautiful, and the location was perfect (close to westbay and the pearl, but out of the way of traffic). Sadly it seems as though that’s the only reason to like it.
We’re now in 2010 and I’m still waiting on it to be finished. I’m going to list a few things that piss me off.
1) The garbage chute room is disgusting. I had to complain directly to Dar because some workers kept using it as a toilet and pissing on the floor! Why the hell would they piss on the floor?! It was cleaned but its filthy again and to be honest, even if it was clean, it still looks ugly. (Cement floor, peeling walls, dents in the metal chute).
2) The underground parking looks like a war zone! There are leaks all over the place, it’s dirty, there’s garbage on the floors, cracks all over, holes in the floor, the parking spaces are cramped, and three out of the four entrances are STILL closed….
3) They made us PAY for a parking spot. Does that make sense? The government should have FORCED them to give us one. The parking spots were 50,000 QR, it’s not like someone would own a place (or even rent) and not have a car in Qatar.
4) I’m still waiting for them to finish fixing issues with one of the apartments.
5) The building gym is smaller than my living room. The equipment is old and useless. It’s not a gym, more like a locker room!
6) I’m tired of smelling the neighbours food through the vents.
7) The quality of fixtures and tiles is poor. The marble floor is made of the cheapest marble money can buy.
The hallways look like a 20 year old hospital’s hallway.
9) The damn fire alarms go off 2 times a day for no reason! (Dar says “There’s an apartment with 12 indians living in it and they cook with fire”) What?! It’s against the law to have so many people in there and I DOUBT they’re cooking 24 hours a day!
10) Two to three elevators are always down for maintanence. TWO of them had a sign saying “Down for maintanence due to water leakage on electricity” FOR TWO MONTHS NOW! (It’s also scary that there’s water leaking into the electricity of the elevator.
11) The elevators were advertised as ‘high speed elevators’. They ‘were’ fast… now it looks like they’ve turned down the speed because it’s sooooo slow….
I ended up renovating my apartments so that they’d be at the level I had expected them to be.
Now there’s a few things to talk about besides what I mentioned.
1) Shouldn’t the government get involved to make sure this project is perfect? Why you may ask? Well if this is the first major residential project, if it’s a peice of crap, then won’t investors lose confidence in the quality of other projects?
2) Doesn’t the owner of the project care? If MY name was on it, I’d like people to know they can trust me; I’d like people to know that MY projects were all about quality.
3) Does the company that owns the project REALLY need to cut corners? I feel like the tower is already 10 years old!
I can go on and on… I’ll save my breath for later…
I’ll end this with saying that Zig means ‘to poo’ in Arabic. Zag means ‘Poo’ed’ in arabic. I’ll leave you to think of another word for Zig Zag.
tallg said,
Wrote on January 16, 2010 @ 10:22 am
Let’s be honest, not many people are going to be surprised by any of this, are they? It’s a situation most of us are all too familiar with, and is the reason that many of us would never touch real estate in Qatar. Cheap unskilled labour, cheap materials, lack of motivation to do a good job, etc, etc = poor quality (and let’s not even get started on the health and safety issues!).
Sybil said,
Wrote on January 16, 2010 @ 10:45 am
Do you not have litigation in this country, with your peers deciding what is a fair and just solution? Be careful of wanting the government to solve the problems. They’ll have their hands in more things than you want before it’s over. I hope the problems will be somehow resolved for the protection of your investment (and sanity!). Good luck!
Kei said,
Wrote on January 16, 2010 @ 1:38 pm
we do but we don’t have proper regulation!
With a few real estate companies, I had to threaten suing them, and they’re so cocky and then try to claim we have no rights and that there’s nothing you can do.
They waste a lot of your time. I stand my ground, pull out some laws and always win.
The problem is though, how easy is it to get a hold of the laws in Qatar? There should be an online ENGLISH database for example so people can easily know their rights.
@Tallg, the point being, we’ve seen that in Dubai, and we would have hoped that Qatar learned from that mistake. With a project that so many people have their eyes on, why didn’t the government feel it was necessary for it to do well?
We need Land Law courts here. We need regulators.
tallg said,
Wrote on January 16, 2010 @ 5:19 pm
Yes, of course, I see your point. But my point is, why is this a surprise? We’ve seen it so many times before. When it comes to construction/housing they don’t learn.
Greedy developers are left to get on with it with pretty much no-one to answer to. Quality and safety standards are non-existent resulting in shoddy buildings with fundamental flaws and poor finishes built by people risking their lives every day due to lack of safety enforcement.
But Qatar is happy cos they have a pretty sky line making it look they are an up and coming ultra-modern city. Not many people outside of Qatar hear about how poor the buildings actually are, or about the people who build them.
As you say, we’ve seen it before in Dubai.
But keep pushing for the land law courts, keep standing your ground, keep making people aware of the problems. It’s good to know some Qataris want things to change.
Bleu said,
Wrote on January 18, 2010 @ 12:01 am
Zig-Zag … LOL
يا بو زقة
.... said,
Wrote on January 19, 2010 @ 1:47 pm
Do u have any of your apartments for rent. We actually liked zigzag when we viewed them and are looking to rent.
Kei said,
Wrote on January 21, 2010 @ 1:40 pm
Yes indeed I do. Just one left.
It’s considered ‘luxury’ in the true sense that we did the finishing with an external company, leather/suede sofa, solid wood tables, slanting curtains, HD LCD tvs in all the rooms, fully equiped stainless steel kitchen, bathrooms have glass splash guards installed, appliances are all have new anti-bacteria and hygiene technology, satellite boxes installed, built in cupboards, and the water and electricity deposit is paid so the tenant doesn’t need to
It’s the largest two bedroom available (two bed + maids room) in Tower A (the better tower), it’s a corner with a view of Lusail, Ritz, Grand Hyatt, The Pearl and Westbay skyline (best there is).
If you’re interested drop me a line at kei ~A-t~ iloveqatar.net
Mike said,
Wrote on January 21, 2010 @ 3:40 pm
Sadly I’m with Tallg on this one. People like me who arrived in 2005 saw the terrible quality of their expensive rental accomodation and knew that standards would be the same for the properties available for purchase.
I’ve tried to convince Qatari friends that where I’m from, construction industry workers have not just finished school but also gone on to do further study in order to prepare them to be competent construction workers. However to my Qatari friends it seems that construction is the sort of field that is suitable only for unskilled people from undeveloped nations. So it’s hardly surprising that when you hire monkies to build things, the work will be done poorly.
Your post can really be boiled down to a few key points:
Why do builders cut costs and corners? Because they are greedy and unethical.
Why doesn’t the government implement and enforce consumer protection laws? Afraid to ruffle feathers or because it simply doesn’t care. Each is the logical result when a country lacks democracy; in other countries the relevant government representative would be held responsible.
andy said,
Wrote on May 8, 2010 @ 1:21 pm
its not about unskilled workers, its about the Qatari mindset. just look across the pond in Dubai you have the same construction workers and similar issues but the quality of construction is MUCH BETTER!
thats because their the owners actually care about their name and about their reputation. Here you have bad engineers and contractors, who have not seen any standards except for their own home countries or that of Qatar and they keep designing bad stuff. On top of that the owners just dont care to even look at the designs. Eg: how many buildings in dubai do you see with ramps and how many of those do you see here?
The other point is facilities management. You dont see Facilities management here at all, which is why you have the horrific situations described above!
My advice to all qatari landlords is simple – PLEASE LOOK AT YOUR NEIGHBORS IN DUBAI AND LEARN HOW THEY BUILD!
Kei said,
Wrote on May 8, 2010 @ 2:14 pm
My Emiratee friend sitting next to me in the spice market just laughed.
Lol I understand what you are trying to say but don’t you think you are generalizing?
I care about my name. My villas and apartments were built to the highest standard.
I’ve seen al asmakh building on al saad and it beautiful.
The fault is thatbthere is no land law court and companies hire corrupt and lazy managers that manipulate the system.
On a side note, do some research on who owns zig zag
.... said,
Wrote on August 26, 2010 @ 1:27 pm
Well if there was anything left which is good about the ZigZag was the view of the skyline. Two days ago I came back home to find them sticking Qatar Bid posters all over the facade!! So much for the view and so much for privacy and one’s own right to say No! Their answer was: The owner’s committee voted for this. Its weird when the owner of the appartment I have rented had no clue about it.
Welcome to Qatar
.... said,
Wrote on August 26, 2010 @ 8:00 pm
Obviously the admin of this site didn’t like the post related to zigzag facade covered by a poster… So much for freedom of speech
Kei said,
Wrote on August 26, 2010 @ 8:11 pm
You need to relax Mr. Anonymous
As I mentioned, I do not delete anything.
I didn’t delete it when someone posted that I’m a filthy Arab towel head so why would I delete a post that agrees with what I originally posted?
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