Dubai tenancy decisions become much easier when owners separate common market habits from actual contractual and legal rules. These ten questions cover some of the most frequent landlord mistakes.
Do not turn market habits into legal rules
A clause or percentage can be common in Dubai without being mandatory. Check the tenancy contract and applicable Dubai rules separately.
1. Register the tenancy with Ejari or rely only on the signed contract? Register it. Ejari is Dubai’s official tenancy-registration system.
2. Set renewal rent from portal listings or the applicable rental index? Use the applicable Dubai rental-index framework. Asking prices alone do not determine a permitted increase.
3. Notify a rent increase one month before expiry or at least 90 days before? At least 90 days before expiry unless the parties have agreed otherwise.
4. Treat repairs below AED 500 as automatically the tenant’s responsibility? No. There is no universal statutory AED 500 rule; maintenance allocation depends on the law and the actual tenancy contract.
5. Assume the security deposit is legally capped at 5% unfurnished and 10% furnished? No. Those percentages should not be treated as universal statutory caps.
6. Deduct from the deposit for normal wear just because the property looks used? No. A security deposit is not a general refurbishment fund.
7. Evict a tenant because Holiday Home income looks better? No. Switching business strategy is not itself an automatic eviction ground.
8. Use personal-use eviction and then immediately re-rent? Do not. Recovering possession on a personal-use basis can restrict the owner’s ability to re-let the property afterwards.
9. Accept cash without documenting it? No. Rent, deposits and other payments should have clear evidence and receipts.
10. Auto-renew without reviewing the property and contract? No. Check rent, maintenance issues, notices and renewal terms before committing to another tenancy period.
Quick takeaway
- Register residential tenancies through Ejari.
- Use the applicable Dubai rental-index framework for increases.
- The AED 500 maintenance rule is contractual, not universal law.
- Do not treat common deposit percentages as statutory caps.
- Do not treat eviction as a shortcut for changing rental strategy.
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