Who Writes the Rules, and Who Enforces Them
A Dubai tenancy is not a private arrangement between two parties. It sits inside a defined legal framework, and a landlord who understands that framework almost never ends up in a dispute. The whole rulebook rests on three instruments and two institutions.
The foundation is Law No. 26 of 2007, which regulates the relationship between landlords and tenants: it defines the lease, the obligations on each side, the maintenance duties and the grounds for eviction. It was amended by Law No. 33 of 2008, which rewrote the two articles landlords care about most, Article 25 on eviction and Article 26 on re-letting after a personal-use recovery. When a lawyer cites Article 25(1) or 25(2), they mean the text as amended in 2008. On top of that sits Decree No. 43 of 2013, which caps how much rent can rise at renewal.
Two bodies bring it to life. RERA, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency within the Dubai Land Department, regulates: it runs Ejari, publishes the rental index and sets the calculator that decides your legal increase. The Rental Dispute Centre, the judicial body under the DLD, adjudicates. RERA does not decide disputes; the RDC does.
Why Ejari Is Step One, Not an Afterthought
Ejari, Arabic for 'my rent', is RERA's official system for registering every tenancy in Dubai. Registration is mandatory for all residential and commercial leases, and it produces a certificate with a unique Ejari number. It is not paperwork for its own sake. It is the document that gives the whole tenancy legal standing.
Three things depend on it. First, standing at the Rental Dispute Centre: the RDC generally requires a registered Ejari contract before it will hear a case, so an unregistered lease leaves you materially weaker the moment a dispute arises. Second, DEWA: a valid Ejari certificate is required to open the electricity and water account for the unit, so no Ejari means no power and water for your tenant. Third, residency visas: Ejari is a supporting document when a tenant sponsors family, because it evidences a legitimate Dubai address.
Registration is the landlord's responsibility. If the landlord fails to do it, the tenant can register to protect their own position, but that is not a position you want to hand over. Treat Ejari as the first act of the tenancy, done the day the contract is signed.
The Five Tiers That Cap Your Increase
A landlord cannot raise rent at will. Decree No. 43 of 2013 caps the increase you may apply at renewal on a five-tier scale, driven by how far the current rent sits below the RERA average for a comparable unit in the same area. The further below the benchmark your rent is, the more room you have to raise it. If it is close to the benchmark, you have none.
| Current rent vs the RERA area average | Maximum permitted increase at renewal |
|---|---|
| Within 10% of the RERA average (up to 10% below) | 0%, no increase allowed |
| 11% to 20% below the average | Up to 5% |
| 21% to 30% below the average | Up to 10% |
| 31% to 40% below the average | Up to 15% |
| More than 40% below the average | Up to 20% |
The maths matters, because the cap is applied to the current rent, not the benchmark. Take a unit let at 60,000 dirhams that the index shows sitting 25% below the area average. That falls in the 21% to 30% band, so the maximum increase is 10% of 60,000, which is 6,000 dirhams, giving a new rent of 66,000 dirhams. If that same unit were within 10% of the average, the permitted increase would be zero, whatever the wider market has done.
Why Two Identical Units Now Price Differently
If you learn one new thing this year, learn this. From January 2025 the Dubai Land Department replaced the old flat rent calculator with the Smart Rental Index, and it changed how the benchmark behind the cap is set.
The headline change is a building-quality classification. Each building is now rated, commonly described as a 1 to 5 quality tier, using a valuation model reported to weigh around 60 criteria: construction quality and age, maintenance, management, facilities and services, parking, views, and location and accessibility. This is newer, industry-reported detail rather than primary legal text, so treat the exact tier count and criteria as commonly reported, and confirm your building's rating on the official service before you rely on it.
The practical effect is real. Two identical-size apartments in the same area can now carry different benchmark rents, because one sits in a higher-classified building. For a landlord in a well-run, well-located tower, that can lift the benchmark, which in turn can raise the legal ceiling on your increase when your rent sits well below the building-adjusted average. Price and renew off the index, not off a neighbour's rent.
The Notice That Protects Your Increase
To change any term of the tenancy at renewal, most often the rent, but also the payment frequency or other conditions, you must give at least 90 days written notice before the expiry date, unless both parties agree otherwise. It is a simple rule with an unforgiving edge.
Miss the 90-day window and the contract renews on the same terms. You cannot impose the increase for that cycle, however clearly the index would have supported it. The discipline is purely administrative: diarise the renewal date, count back 90 days, and serve the notice in writing before that point. A well-run landlord never loses an increase to a missed date.
One distinction matters more than any other here. The 90-day notice is a change-of-terms notice. It is not an eviction notice, and it does not substitute for the 12-month notarised notice required to recover the property, which the next chapter sets out in full. Using the wrong notice for the wrong purpose is the most common and most expensive landlord error in Dubai.
During the Term, or at the End of It
Dubai law draws a hard line between two very different things: removing a tenant during a running term because they are at fault, and recovering the property at the end of a term when there is no fault at all. They live in different sub-articles and carry different notice rules.
| Regime | What it covers | What is required |
|---|---|---|
| Article 25(1), during the term | Eviction for tenant fault | A specific fault ground, below |
| Non-payment of rent | Failure to pay | 30 days after a formal written demand |
| Illegal or improper use | Use that breaches the contract or the law | Grounds to seek eviction |
| Subletting without consent | Subletting without written landlord consent | Grounds to seek eviction |
| Unauthorised alterations | Structural changes without permission | Grounds to seek eviction |
| Article 25(2), at the end of term | No-fault recovery at expiry | 12 months notarised notice |
The Article 25(2) no-fault grounds are narrow: a genuine sale; personal use by the owner or a first-degree relative, where the owner must show they do not own another suitable property for that purpose; or demolition or comprehensive reconstruction that cannot be done with the tenant in place.
The Deposit, and Who Fixes What
The security deposit is where good record-keeping earns its place. The market-standard amounts are 5% of the annual rent for an unfurnished unit and 10% for a furnished one. These are market and regulatory norms rather than a single statutory percentage, so treat them as the accepted figures rather than a hard line in one law, and know that amounts charged well above them are generally treated as unenforceable.
The deposit is refundable at the end of the tenancy, less legitimate, documented deductions: damage beyond normal wear and tear, missing furnishings in a furnished unit, unpaid rent, or unpaid DEWA and chiller bills. Common practice is to refund within roughly 30 days of hand-back once keys are returned, though that timing is an administrative norm to verify. Move-in and move-out condition evidence is what turns a disputed deduction into a defensible one, so photograph everything.
Maintenance is governed by Article 16 of Law 26 of 2007. Unless the contract says otherwise in writing, the landlord bears structural and major maintenance needed to keep the unit habitable, while the tenant covers minor, day-to-day upkeep. Landlords often set a written threshold to allocate small repairs to the tenant, but the default duty for major works stays with the owner, so put any threshold in the contract rather than assuming it.
How the RDC Actually Works
The Rental Dispute Centre is the judicial body under the Dubai Land Department that hears every Dubai rental dispute. It runs mediation first, then a First Instance court, with an appeal tier above that. It is the only venue, so a landlord who wants to enforce a right, recover rent or confirm a lawful eviction goes here, and nowhere else.
Filing is straightforward but evidence-led. You submit online through the RDC portal or Dubai REST, or in person, with the registered Ejari contract, your Emirates ID, the evidence (notices, payment records, condition reports) and your claim. This is exactly why the earlier chapters matter: the case you can win is the case you documented as you went.
On cost and timing, treat the figures as administrative and verify the current schedule. The filing fee is commonly cited as 3.5% of the annual rent, subject to a minimum of AED 500 and a maximum of AED 20,000, with a portion often refundable on an amicable settlement. Mediation frequently resolves within a few weeks, while a full First Instance case commonly runs one to four months. All of these are estimates to confirm at the time you file.
How to Hold Property Inside the Law
- Register Ejari first, every time. No Ejari means no DEWA for the tenant, weaker footing at the RDC and visa friction. Treat it as step one.
- Price and renew off the index. Run the Smart Rental Index before proposing any figure, and confirm your building's classification, because it can move the benchmark.
- Respect the cap. Raise rent only by the tier the calculator returns, 0, 5, 10, 15 or 20%, applied to the current rent, once per 12 months.
- Serve the right notice for the right purpose. 90 days written notice to change terms at renewal; 12 months notarised notice to recover the property. Never confuse the two.
- Hold the deposit correctly. Typically 5% unfurnished or 10% furnished, refunded promptly less documented, wear-and-tear-excluded deductions. Keep move-in and move-out evidence.
- Budget maintenance. You own structural and major repairs by default under Article 16. Put any minor-repair threshold in writing in the contract.
- Know the hard limits. You cannot hike rent arbitrarily, cannot evict mid-term without an Article 25(1) fault ground, and cannot re-let within 2 years after a personal-use recovery.
- If it escalates, the RDC is the only venue. Arrive with Ejari, notices and payment records in order, and most disputes settle before a hearing.