Rent Increase Disputes in Dubai: What the Law Actually Allows

The renewal notice arrives and the figure has jumped. The landlord points at what similar units are advertised for. You point at the rent you have paid for three years. Both of you are looking at the wrong number.

Rent increase disputes in Dubai are decided by a short decree and an official benchmark. Asking prices on the portals are not that benchmark. Neither is what the landlord believes the property is worth.

The Cap Comes From One Decree and Five Bands

Decree No. 43 of 2013 Determining Rent Increases for Real Property in the Emirate of Dubai sets the maximum increase on renewal of a lease. Article 1 works by comparing the current rent against the average rental value of similar units.

1. No increase, where the rent is up to ten percent less than the average
2. Five percent, where the rent is eleven to twenty percent less than the average
3. Ten percent, where the rent is twenty-one to thirty percent less than the average
4. Fifteen percent, where the rent is thirty-one to forty percent less than the average
5. Twenty percent, where the rent is more than forty percent less than the average

Two features of this structure get missed. The percentage is applied to the current rent rather than to the index figure, so a large gap does not close in one renewal. A rent sitting within ten percent of the average also supports no increase at all, which is where most tenants are after a single adjustment.

Article 2 applies the Decree to landlords in the Emirate whether private or public, including in special development zones and free zones.

The Index Changed. The Decree Did Not

Article 3 of the Decree ties the average rental value to the Rent Index of the Emirate of Dubai approved by RERA. That single sentence is why the rules can shift without any law being amended.

For residential property, the Land Department launched the Smart Residential Rent Index in January 2025, replacing the older area-based calculator. The methodology now weighs building-level factors including classification, technical characteristics, finishes, maintenance, services, facilities and parking, rather than treating every unit in a district as equivalent. Other property categories are covered by their own index tools, so a commercial or industrial tenant should not assume the residential building classification applies to his unit.

The practical effect is that two identical layouts in the same community can carry different benchmarks because one building is better maintained. Arguments built on what the neighbouring tower achieves are weaker than they were. Arguments built on the index entry for your own building are stronger.

The index is built on registered contracts rather than on advertised rents. Where a dispute reaches the tribunal, Article 9 of the tenancy law directs it to consider the condition of the property and the prevailing market rent for similar property in the same area, so market evidence has a place. It is still not the figure the Decree works from.

The Ninety Days Is a Default, Not an Absolute

Article 13 of Law No. 26 of 2007, as amended by Law No. 33 of 2008, allows the landlord and tenant to amend the terms of the tenancy or review the rent before expiry, upward or downward. Article 14 then sets the notice requirement. Its opening words matter: unless otherwise agreed by the parties, a party wishing to amend any term under Article 13 must notify the other no less than ninety days before the tenancy expires.

So ninety days is the position where the contract says nothing. Where the parties agreed a different notice period in writing, that period governs. Anyone telling you the ninety days can never be varied has not read the first four words of the Article.

What happens when the notice is missed is also worth stating accurately. The landlord does not lose the right to increase the rent permanently. Article 6 provides that where the tenant continues to occupy the property after expiry without objection from the landlord, the contract renews for the same period or one year, whichever is less, on the same terms. So where the notice is missed, the increase cannot ordinarily be imposed for that renewal unless the tenant agrees to it. The conversation starts again at the next one.

A Cap Is Not an Entitlement

Decree 43 states a maximum. It does not oblige a tenant to accept that maximum. Nor does it convert the permitted percentage into an automatic increase.

Article 13 contemplates the parties agreeing the new rent between themselves. Where they do not agree, the tribunal may determine the fair rent, taking into account the criteria in Article 9, which directs attention to the condition of the property and the prevailing market rent for similar property in the same area.

That is a meaningful difference in a negotiation. A landlord who opens at the full permitted percentage is stating a ceiling rather than a settled figure. A tenant who treats the calculator output as binding has conceded the point before the discussion starts.

Where the Dispute Actually Goes

Most rent disputes in Dubai go to the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre, established by Decree No. 26 of 2013, rather than to the Dubai Courts. Article 6 gives the Centre exclusive jurisdiction over rent disputes between landlords and tenants of property situated in the Emirate, including in free zones.

The same Article carves out three categories: disputes arising within free zones that have their own tribunals or special courts competent to hear them, which is why a DIFC tenancy is heard by the DIFC Courts, disputes arising from a finance lease, plus long leases falling under the separate registration regime.

The cap and the forum are different questions. Decree 43 reaches landlords across the Emirate including free zones, so the permitted percentage may be the same while the body deciding the argument is not.

A tenancy that is not registered on Ejari is harder to bring before the Centre, which is why registration tends to matter at the moment a tenant wishes it had been done. The Centre works from documents: the tenancy contract, the Ejari certificate, the notice with its date of service, the index entry and the payment record.

A File That Turned on the Date of Service

A tenant has paid AED 95,000 for two years on a two-bedroom apartment. The landlord sends a WhatsApp message seventy days before expiry asking for AED 125,000, a thirty-two percent increase, saying similar units are listed at AED 130,000.

The index average for that building is AED 108,000. The current rent sits around twelve percent below it, which places the renewal in the five percent band, allowing AED 99,750. The notice was also served inside the ninety day window. The contract contains no clause shortening it.

When a matter of this kind reaches me as a Legal Consultant, the assessment starts with six things:

1. The index figure for that specific building and unit type, rather than for the community
2. The date the notice was served, with evidence of how it was served and received
3. Whether the tenancy contract varies the ninety day period, which many standard forms do
4. The current contractual rent, excluding service charges and any separate charges
5. Whether the tenancy is registered on Ejari and in whose name
6. Whether the landlord has raised eviction as an alternative, which is a separate regime with its own notice requirements

Most of these disputes are not really about the percentage. They are about a landlord who believes the market sets the rent and a tenant who believes the law freezes it. Neither is right. The index sets the benchmark, the Decree sets the ceiling, then the date on the notice decides whether either of them applies this year.

There is more on this subject on the page covering rental and tenancy disputes in Dubai.