Job Discussion Forums

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Any good employer in KSA will pick up the tab for your utilities. The phone you will have to pay yourself. The fact that your housing costs are zero means that your real income is quite high. No tax either - and a cheap place to live. Where else can you have shirts laundered for 30 US cents ? (Hail not Dhahranm where it is a scandalous 85 US cents !)

R-na · Joined: 09 Jul 2009 Posts: 4

Thank you, John. I was going to ask about utilities as well.

I would like to ask about the possibility of renting an apartment. What district of Hail would be the most suitable (and preferably the closest to the Engineering department, if anybody knows where it is) for that purpose? Is it possible at all, as in such regions people prefer to rent homes to families rather than singles, especially when these singles are of the male gender. In case it is possible, what is the rent for a one bedroom apartment in Hail?
R-na

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I think you will find that housing is provided and that there is no option to receive housing allowance in Hail.

R-na · Joined: 09 Jul 2009 Posts: 4

Actually there is. It is either the housing or allowance.

cassava · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 175

Marquess · Joined: 05 Feb 2009 Posts: 165

Besides I never saw a 1 bedroom apartment the whole time I was there.

Mia Xanthi · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 1:19 am Post subject:

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

scot47 is wrong about utilities. Most employers in Saudi, including the Royal Commission, don't pay them.

Marquess · Joined: 05 Feb 2009 Posts: 165

Stephan is wrong. Most employers of westerners pay untilities.

johnslat · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:52 pm Post subject:

Well, the IPA (Institute of Public Administration) doesn't pay utilities, and I'd call them a very good (relatively speaking) employer.

Cleopatra · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:52 pm Post subject:

Without getting into the distinction between 'good' and 'bad' employers, utility bills are not really a big deal in KSA - at least outside the summer months when you'll be running the AC 24 hours a day. As a single person, my bill rarely came to more than about 50SR a month, often less. Peanuts really.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Cleo
They will never let you into the Fellowship of Five Hundred.

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

When I left Jubail I had to get clearance stating I'd paid the water bill. The total for seven years came to 40 halalah. Whilst they were preparing the bills they gave us a free coke and refreshments, and when I went to the bank to pay the teller just smiled and stamped it without taking any money.

Marquess · Joined: 05 Feb 2009 Posts: 165

You didn't leave Jubail-Jubail left you.

Mia Xanthi · Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 2:14 pm Post subject:

My electric bll ran into 600 -700 riyals each month in the summer in the Eastern Province.

If you got behind in paying it , they would turn it off and it would take DAYS to get it restored. PMU even allowed it to be turned off in the summer when no one was in the villa, so people often came back to horrible surprises.

Then, there were the deductions for the phanton "unpaid electric bills" --- I had 700 SAR deducted over a bill I had paid, and another colleague had even more deducted from her salary for a paid bill. The university told us to pay through a representative who just took off with the money, leaving our bills unpaid, and of course the university had to recoup the losses through our salaries, not their own accounts. And there was no way to get the money back once it had been deducted.