Now that we’ve found a suitable warehouse it was time to start the paperwork.

We knew the chances of the administrative process going smoothly we’re low but our hopes were up. We had gone through a real estate agent to locate the property and we thought he may help guide through the paperwork. Once the agent had cashed his cheque there was little we could do to use him with the inevitable issues that would pop up.

After signing the lease agreement we had to wait for the signed documents from the warehouse owner to be delivered. We were then required to lodge these documents with the DIP authority to process the Ejari and to pay the DIP fees.

And this is where we encountered our first snag.

We were unable to register the lease as there was an outstanding fee owed to the revenue department and thus there was a block on the property. As this occurred late on a Thursday there was no way anybody from the warehouse owners company was going to be of any assistance. Despite being told that someone would call us back “in a few minutes” an hour later we hadn’t heard anything.

Calls back to the owners company office were not answered.

When we followed up with the warehouse owner on Sunday, they were adamant that there wasn’t a block on the property and assured us that it had all been a mistake. So we went back out to the DIP authority on Monday who informed us nothing had been resolved and the block on the property remained! Very frustrating. After more phone calls back and forth to the owners company nothing was resolved. It was only due to the great service at the DIP authority that we finally got our paperwork submitted. The manager of the Ejari office realised that the block wasn’t anything to do with us and allowed us the continue the process. He was going to follow up with the owners company himself. So now all the Ejari paperwork and warehouse registration documents were submitted all we could do was wait.

Jump forward to Thursday afternoon and we got a call from the DIP authority to say there were still a few issues to be resolved but we should be receiving our Ejari by the close of business. When the Ejari was emailed through at 5pm we raced straight back to the DED to lodge the final documents required for the full business license to be issued.

With all our documents in hand from trade name registration, initial approval certificate, MOA, copies of passports etc we were asked for a copy of the DEWA bill. This was the first time that we were informed that we required a DEWA bill to register the company! After some discussion it was decided that we didn’t need the DEWA bill and a short time later, and a large license fee payment, we were the proud owners of a full DED LLC company operating license!! It was also a nice feature being able to pay the license fee via credit card as we’d been informed that payments were required in cash.

Safety Screens Metal Doors LLC was now fully up and running; well sort of. There’s still the next major step of registering the company with the Department of Labour.