A property dispute in Dubai: where each kind actually goes

The useful thing to know about property disputes in Dubai is that they are sorted by type before they are sorted by merit. A tenancy argument, a building argument and a developer argument each have their own route, and sending one down the wrong route costs months. The second useful thing is less comfortable: nearly everything that reaches a dispute here is lost on documents rather than on the facts of the matter.

Tenancy: the Rental Disputes Centre

• Where it goes. To the Rental Disputes Centre at the Land Department — a specialist forum rather than the general courts, and faster for being one.
• What it costs. A percentage of the annual rent, with a floor and a ceiling.
• What decides it. Ejari registration, the notice and its proof of service, and the inventory. A tenancy that was never registered is not a grey scheme — it is simply paper that is hard for either party to stand on.
• The two notice periods that get confused. Changing the terms of a contract, rent included, needs at least 90 days' notice before the end of the term. Evicting on grounds such as a sale or the owner's own occupation needs 12 months' notice served through a notary or by registered post. A missed deadline means the contract renews as it was, and no verbal understanding changes that.
• Rent increases are arithmetic, not argument. The scale in force since 2013 is tied to the average market rate for that property type in that district, and the Land Department's calculator applies it. Its output is what the tribunal will look at.

Service charge: the budget line first, then RERA

An owner who thinks the charge is wrong has a specific route and a specific mistake to avoid. The mistake is arguing with the total. Under the joint-ownership framework the building is run by a management company appointed by the developer under RERA supervision, the budget goes through approval, and an increase almost always traces to one line — insurance, cooling, repairs. An owner is entitled to that breakdown, and the productive step is a joint approach to RERA by owners where the spend is not substantiated. Compare the figure you are billed against the approved rate published in the Land Department's service charge index before anything else: the first question is whether you are being charged what was approved.

The developer: the contract first, the register second

• The contract governs. Delay, specification, area variation and handover conditions are decided by what the sale and purchase agreement says, which is why the time to read it is before signing rather than when the date slips.
• Evidence beats correspondence. The completion percentage on the Land Department's escrow register is evidence; a sales update is not, and the two frequently differ.
• Check the payment account on every request, for the life of the plan. The account should name the project, not the developer's trading entity, and a change of bank details arriving by email should be treated as fraud until confirmed by telephone on a number you already had.
• Regulatory complaints and the courts are separate tracks from the contractual one, and which is appropriate depends on what actually went wrong. This is the point at which a lawyer stops being optional.

When a project stops altogether

The framework has an answer for the worst case: a stalled development can be cancelled by the regulator, and a dedicated judicial process exists to wind the project up and deal with what remains in the escrow account for the benefit of buyers. It is a real protection and a slow one. Recovering money through a liquidation is a different experience from having bought from a developer who finishes buildings — which is why the delivery record remains a better safeguard than any dispute mechanism, and why it belongs in the diligence rather than in the contingency plan.

Defects after handover: two clocks

Two liability periods run from handover. The long one covers structural defects and lasts ten years under UAE law. The short one is the market convention on mechanical, electrical and plumbing installations: one year. The short one expires while most owners are still furnishing, which makes it the one to use deliberately — run the air conditioning through a full summer, use every bathroom, check the wet areas after a few months of real use, and report anything in writing through the developer's process. A verbal report to a site manager is not a record, and a claim made after the window closes is a claim about something else.

The file that decides it

• Registered contracts — Ejari for a tenancy, Oqood or the title for the property itself.
• Notices with proof of service, through a notary or by registered post, dated.
• A dated inventory with photographs at every handover, in both directions. Deposit arguments are the most common small dispute on this market and are almost always won by whoever has the photographs.
• Payment records showing what went where, and to which account.
• Written reports of every defect, inside the window, through the channel the contract names.

Based on the Rental Disputes Centre's jurisdiction, Dubai's joint-ownership and escrow frameworks and the statutory defect-liability periods in the UAE. Not legal advice.