Evicting a Tenant in Dubai: Where Landlords Go Wrong

The contract runs out in two months and the landlord wants the unit back. He sends a message saying it will not be renewed. The tenant stays, the contract renews itself and a year later the landlord is still trying to recover his own property.

Evicting a tenant in Dubai is governed by Law No. 26 of 2007 as amended by Law No. 33 of 2008. Most failed eviction files are not lost on the merits. They are lost on the route chosen or on the way the notice was sent.

A Tenancy Does Not End Because the Term Does

Article 6 provides that where the tenant remains in occupation at the end of the term without objection from the landlord, the contract renews for the same term or for one year, whichever is shorter, on the same conditions. Article 7 provides that a valid contract may not be unilaterally terminated during its term by either party.

Those two provisions dispose of the most common assumption in the market, which is that a landlord simply has to decline to renew. Non-renewal is not a mechanism under this law. Recovering the property requires a ground in Article 25 and the notice that goes with it.

Disputes themselves go to the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre under Decree No. 26 of 2013, subject to the exceptions in that decree for free zones with their own competent courts or tribunals, for finance leases and for long leases.

The Two Routes Are Not Interchangeable

Article 25 contains two separate regimes and choosing the wrong one costs a year.

Article 25(1) deals with eviction before the contract expires. The grounds are specific: failure to pay rent within thirty days of the landlord's demand for payment unless the parties agreed otherwise, subletting without written approval, use of the property for an illegal or immoral purpose, a commercial shop left unoccupied without legal reason for thirty continuous days or ninety non continuous days in one year, a change that endangers the safety of the property so that it cannot be restored to its original state or damage caused by the tenant's deliberate act or gross negligence, use for a purpose other than the one agreed or in breach of planning and building rules, a likelihood of collapse proven by a technical report issued or certified by Dubai Municipality, failure to meet a legal or contractual obligation within thirty days of notice and demolition required by a government development plan.

Article 25(2) deals with eviction at the end of the contract and has only four grounds: demolition for reconstruction or works that prevent the tenant using the property with the necessary licences in place, renovation or major maintenance that cannot be carried out while the tenant is in occupation supported by a technical report. The third is the owner or a first degree relative needing the property for personal use where the owner proves he has no suitable alternative. The fourth is an intention to sell the property.

Paragraph 1 has its own service rule. The notice it requires is served on the tenant through a Notary Public or by registered mail, in the same way as the twelve month notice.

A landlord who wants the property for himself has no route under Article 25(1), however the relationship is going. A landlord facing a tenant who has not paid has no reason to wait a year.

How the Notice Has to Be Sent

This is where most of these files are decided. Under Article 25(2) the landlord must notify the tenant of the reasons for eviction at least twelve months before the date set for eviction. The notification must be made through the Notary Public or by registered mail.

Three consequences follow. All three appear regularly.

The method is prescribed. An email, a WhatsApp message or a courier letter sent by the landlord himself does not replace service through the Notary Public or by registered mail, which is the first point a tenant's answer will make.

The reasons have to be stated. A notice that says the landlord wants the property back without identifying which of the four grounds is relied on gives the tenant an obvious answer at the hearing.

The ground relied on in the notice is the ground the case is run on. A landlord who notifies for personal use and arrives at the Centre arguing that he intends to sell has changed his case after the clock started.

Buying a Tenanted Property Does Not Clear It

Article 28 states that a transfer of ownership does not affect the tenant's right to continue occupying the property, provided the lease is valid. The new owner takes the unit with the tenancy attached. An investor who buys an occupied apartment expecting vacant possession at the next renewal has bought a twelve month notice obligation along with the title deed.

Article 27 closes the other assumption. The contract does not expire on the death of the landlord or the tenant. It continues with the heirs. The tenant's heirs may bring it to an end on at least thirty days notice or at expiry, whichever comes first.

What the Landlord Owes After the Order

An eviction under Article 25(2) carries obligations that run after the tenant has gone.

Where the Tribunal rules in favour of the landlord retaking the property for his own use or for a first degree relative, Article 26 prevents him from renting it to a third party before at least two years have passed for residential property and three years for non residential property, counted from the date he retook possession. There is no shorter period available. A landlord who lets it out inside that window gives the former tenant the right to ask the Tribunal for fair compensation.

Article 29 gives the tenant a priority right to return where the property was demolished and reconstructed or renovated. The rent on return is determined under Article 9 and the tenant has thirty days from the landlord's notification to exercise the right.

These two provisions are the reason an eviction ground should reflect what the owner actually intends to do. A ground selected because it looked like the quickest route creates an obligation the landlord then has to live with.

A File That Turns on a Date

A landlord decides in March that he wants his villa back for his son. He sends an email in April, repeats it in a WhatsApp message in June and serves a notary notice in September stating personal use. The contract renews in January. He files at the Centre in February expecting to rely on eleven months of correspondence.

The notary notice is the only one that counts and it was served in September, so the earliest eviction date it supports is the following September. When a matter of this kind reaches me as a Legal Consultant, the assessment starts with six things:

1. The tenancy contract and the Ejari registration, with every renewal
2. The notary or registered mail notice, the date of service and the eviction date it specifies
3. Which ground under Article 25 the notice states, in its own words
4. The supporting document that ground requires, such as the licence, the technical report or the evidence of no suitable alternative
5. The payment record, since an unpaid rent file runs on a different track entirely
6. What the owner intends to do with the property afterwards, because Article 26 will hold him to it

Landlords tend to treat the notice as a formality that precedes the real step. In these files the notice is the real step. The hearing is mostly an examination of a date and a method of service that were both fixed a year earlier.

There is more on rental and tenancy disputes in Dubai on the practice area page.