Expertise / Real Estate & Dispute Resolution
If you bought a property off-plan and the developer has missed the completion date, stopped responding, or refuses to return your money, you are not without options. Qatari law gives buyers clear remedies, and the courts have applied them. We act for buyers and investors from the first legal notice through to judgment and enforcement.
Buyers usually come to us with one of a familiar set of problems: a unit that was never completed or handed over on time; a developer that will not honour a cancellation or refund; instalments paid for a project that has stalled; security cheques still held by a developer after the contract has broken down; a refusal to return a deposit; or a developer relying on a settlement or waiver clause to resist repayment. We also advise on disputes over unit specifications, delayed title transfer, and service-charge and handover conditions.
Where a developer has failed to perform, the remedies available to a buyer generally include cancellation of the contract, a refund of the sums paid toward the price, the return of security cheques or their value if they have been cashed, and compensation for the loss caused by the delay. Qatari courts have granted each of these. Which combination applies depends on your contract and the facts, and that assessment is the first thing we do.
We review your contract, payment records, and correspondence to establish where the developer has fallen short — and tell you honestly how strong the claim is.
A formal notice to the developer, which sometimes resolves the matter without proceedings — and strengthens the claim if it does not.
We file before the competent forum — for these disputes, usually the Investment and Trade Court — and press the claim through expert examination to judgment.
Where needed, enforcement against the developer's assets, so the judgment becomes an actual recovery.
Real estate and commercial disputes are a core part of our practice, not a sideline. We appear regularly before the Investment and Trade Court, we have obtained cancellation, full refunds, return of security cheques, and compensation for buyers in off-plan disputes, and we work in Arabic and English across both QFC and mainland jurisdictions. Just as important, we tell clients honestly at the outset how strong a claim is and what it is likely to involve, rather than encouraging litigation that will not repay the effort.
This page is general information about the firm's services and does not constitute legal advice on any particular matter.