By Nizar Kochery/Doha
QUESTION: Our sponsor is holding our passports. On our request to return the passports, we have been asked to give a bank guarantee of QR10,000. Can the sponsor retain our passports? Can the sponsor ask for a guarantee for releasing the passports? On expiry, within what period the resident permit must be renewed?
TH, Doha
ANSWER: According to Article 9 of the Sponsorship Law, the sponsor must return the passport to the expatriate when the residency procedure and the renewal processes are completed. Sponsors are not allowed to keep with them passports of their workers. They have to give the passports back to their workers after visa formalities are over.
Article 52 imposes a maximum fine of QR10,000 on sponsors for not handing back passports of their employees after completing visa formalities.
Article 49 grants a grace period of 90 days for renewal of residence permit after its expiry. Requiring a guarantee for return of passport is not legal.
Dishonoured cheque
Q: I hold a dishonoured cheque that has not been drawn in my name. It was presented to my account and was dishonoured. The cheque is made to someone else’s name but, being a bearer cheque, it reached me. What documents do I require to go to court? Can I take legal action? My bank says only the person whose name is written in the cheque can go to court.
SUV, Doha
A: Article 595 of the Commercial Law stipulates that the holder of a cheque has the right to recourse against the drawee, endorser and other obligors if he presents the cheque within the prescribed period and the amount thereof has not been paid, and provided that he establishes non-payment by drawing up a protest. As an alternative to drawing up a protest, non-payment may be established by 1) a statement made from the drawee indicating that date of presenting the cheque 2) a statement issued by the clearing house stating that the cheque has been presented within the legally prescribed period but the value thereof has not been paid. Such statement shall be dated, written on the cheque and signed by the person making it.
Case over salary dues
Q: After our sponsor failed to pay our salary for five months, he agreed to give us sponsorship release with just two months’ salary, asking us to forego the other three months’ wages. As we had no choice, we were forced to agree to the arrangement. We gave our acceptance in writing. Now we have got our sponsorship transferred and work under another sponsor.
Can we claim our salary that our old sponsor has held back and other benefits like leave salary and end-of-service benefits as we had worked for him for more than one year? Does he have the right to retain our salary for sponsorship transfer? Does the agreement letter signed by us agreeing to forego our three months’ salary for sponsorship transfer carry any legal weight?
JJ, Doha
A: Under Article 10 of the Labour Laws, you have one year time to initiate court case to establish your rights. Though you are legally entitled for your salary dues, end-of-service gratuity, leave rights etc, the wording of the agreement signed by you will decide all. Article 4 will be relevant while considering your agreement in the court. According to its provision, the entitlements prescribed by law represent the minimum entitlements of the workers and any release, compromise or waiver shall be deemed void.
Alteration to leased property
Q: We have leased a shed to be used as factory. We issued postdated cheques for five years. Our start-up plans were affected by as municipal procedures were delayed. When we finally started the operations, our landlord filed a case, saying we are altering the structure of the property. What are our rights? Are we banned from doing alteration to make the premises make fit for our operations?
AF, Doha
A: The lessee shall use the leased property in the manner agreed under the lease contract. In the absence of any agreement, he shall use the property in accordance with the purpose for which it is designed subject to compliance with the prevailing practice.
The lessee may not, without the permission of the lessor, make any alteration to the leased property unless no damage is thereby occasioned to the lessor. If the lessee makes alterations to the leased property in excess of the limits prescribed, he may be compelled to reinstate the property to its original condition and to pay compensation if compensation is due.
However the lessee has the right to install in the leased property any equipment or appliances, unless the lessor can prove that the installations endanger the safety of the building or diminish the value thereof.
If the intervention of the lessor is necessary for the completion of any of these installations, the lessee may call upon the lessor to intervene, on condition that he undertakes to pay the expenses incurred by the lessor in this connection.
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LEGAL SYSTEM IN QATAR
According to Article 454, notwithstanding a clause excluding warranty, a seller remains liable for refunding the price and expenses unless he proves that the purchaser knew at the time of the sale of the ground of dispossession or that he purchased the thing with the risk of dispossession.
The seller shall be liable under his warranty according to the provisions of Article 451, when at the time of delivery the thing sold has defects diminishing its value or usefulness for the purpose for which it was intended as shown by the contract or resulting from the nature or the destined use of the thing. The seller is answerable for these defects even if he was ignorant of their existence.
The seller is not liable for defects which are customarily tolerated. The seller is not answerable for the defect of which the purchaser was aware at the time of the sale or which he could have discovered himself had he examined the thing with the care of an ordinary person unless the purchaser proves that the seller has affirmed to him the absence of these defects or fraudulently concealed them from him.
Article 458 stipulates that when the purchaser has taken delivery of the thing sold he shall ascertain its condition as soon as he is able to do so in accordance with common usage.
If he discovers a defect for which the seller is answerable he must give a reasonable notice thereof to the seller failing which he will be deemed to have accepted the thing sold. In the case however of defects that cannot be discovered by means of normal inspection the purchaser shall, upon the discovery of the defect at once give notice thereof to the seller failing which he will forfeit his right to the warranty.
When the purchaser has given notice to the seller of the defect in the thing in due time, he will be entitled to bring an action on the warranty. An action on a warranty exists even if the thing sold has perished whatever may be the cause. If the purchaser becomes aware of the existence of the defect and then disposes of the thing sold as would an owner thereof, he shall not have recourse against the warranty.
The contracting parties may by specific agreement increase, restrict or abolish the warranty. A clause abolishing or restricting the warranty is void if the seller intentionally and fraudulently conceals the defects of the thing sold.
When the purchaser has given notice to the seller of the defect in the thing in due time, he will be entitled to bring an action on the warranty.
An action on a warranty exists even if the thing sold has perished whatever may be the cause. If the purchaser becomes aware of the existence of the defect and then disposes of the thing sold as would an owner thereof, he shall not have recourse against the warranty.
The contracting parties may by specific agreement increase, restrict or abolish the warranty. A clause abolishing or restricting the warranty is void if the seller intentionally and fraudulently conceals the defects of the thing sold.