Property Disputes in Dubai

Property disputes in Dubai usually arrive late. The transfer date has passed, the developer has issued a new handover date, the deposit is being held by someone who says it is forfeited, or the unit that was handed over is not the unit that was bought. By the time a person looks for advice, the decisions that will determine the outcome have often already been made.

I advise buyers, sellers, owners and investors on property and real estate disputes in Dubai, from the first assessment of a legal position through to settlement or the point where a claim is ready to be filed.

Off-plan delays and cancellation

Off-plan sales in Dubai are governed by Law No. 13 of 2008 on the Interim Real Property Register, and every off-plan sale must be registered with the Dubai Land Department through the Oqood system. Article 11 of that law, as amended, sets out what happens when a purchase agreement is terminated and what a developer may retain, which varies with the percentage of the project completed at the time.

Two points are widely misunderstood. Paying a cancellation percentage does not entitle a buyer to walk away, because termination follows a procedure through the Department rather than a choice made by either side. And a delay on its own does not automatically create a right to a refund, because what matters is what the SPA says about the handover date, what caused the delay and whether the project has been referred to the authorities.

When a sale does not complete

A signed Form F commits both parties, but it does not transfer ownership and it does not resolve what happens if one side stops performing. The most common disputes I see involve a buyer who cannot or will not complete, a seller who has accepted a higher offer, a transfer date that passed while the property remained occupied, or an outstanding mortgage that was never disclosed.

The ten percent deposit is not automatically forfeited and it is not automatically returned. What decides it is which party was in breach, what the contract said about that situation and what each side did once the difficulty appeared.

Handover, defects and service charges

Disputes after handover fall into a different category. Snagging and defect claims turn on what was documented at the point of handover and what the SPA said about specification. Service charge disputes turn on whether the charge was approved and how it was calculated, which is a matter for RERA rather than a matter of contract between owner and developer.

A unit that differs from what was purchased, in area, layout or specification, raises a separate question about what was actually agreed and what the tolerance in the contract permits.

Ownership and co-owner disputes

Disputes between joint owners, disputes over a property held through a company and disputes about who is entitled to a property that was registered in one name but paid for by another all begin in the same place, which is what the title deed says and what the payment record shows.

These matters are usually more difficult than they appear at the start, because the registered position and the intended position have often drifted apart over several years without anyone recording why.

What actually decides a property dispute

In most of these matters both sides agree on what happened. The disagreement is about what can be proven and what the documents committed each party to.

The documents that carry weight are the ones that existed before the dispute started: the SPA or Form F, the Oqood or title deed, the payment record, the handover documents and the written exchanges from the period when the difficulty first appeared. A message sent at the time the transfer date was missed is worth considerably more than an account of it given a year later.

Where a dispute has already started, the first question is rarely who is right. It is what can be established from the record as it stands, and what the person still has the ability to fix.