Common Tenancy Dispute Resolution Mistakes to Avoid in Dubai

Where the property sits decides the forum, and the forum decides everything else.

Six recurring errors in Dubai tenancy disputes: filing in the wrong forum, contracts that leave repairs and notice undefined, defective notices, evidence assembled too late, litigating before negotiating, and missing the dates that matter.

By Nour Attorneys / 24 August 2026

Reviewed by Mohamed Noureldin, Founder, Managing Partner & Senior Legal Consultant

Most tenancy cases in Dubai are lost on paperwork rather than on principle. The claim is filed in the wrong place, the notice was served in a way the contract did not permit, or the tenancy contract itself never said what the parties now insist it meant. The mistakes below are the ones that recur, and each one is avoidable at a stage well before anybody is arguing about it.

1. Assuming the free zone rules apply when they do not

Residential and commercial tenancies in Dubai are governed principally by Law No. (26) of 2007 and its amendments, and disputes go to Dubai's rent committee. That is the default for property in the emirate.

Two exceptions cause confusion. The Dubai International Financial Centre has its own legislation and its own courts, so a lease of premises inside the DIFC is not decided the same way as a lease across the road. And the Abu Dhabi Global Market, which people sometimes cite in Dubai tenancy discussions, is an Abu Dhabi jurisdiction — it has nothing to do with a Dubai tenancy at all. Which body of law applies, which forum hears the case and what procedure it uses are all settled by where the property physically sits, not by what the parties assumed when they signed.

Parties who get this wrong do not merely lose time. A claim filed in a forum with no jurisdiction can be dismissed, and by the time it is refiled in the right place the tenant may have vacated, the arrears may have grown, or a period for taking a particular step may have run out.

2. Signing a contract that does not say what happens

A tenancy contract is the document the decision-maker will read first, and short standard forms leave too much unsaid. The recurring gaps are the same in almost every dispute file:

Repairs. Who is responsible for what, and where the line falls between structure, systems and everyday maintenance.
Rent review. When rent may be changed, by what mechanism, and what notice is required.
Renewal and termination. How much notice each party must give, in what form, and to what address.
Condition on handover. What state the property was in at the start, and what record of that state both parties have accepted.
Permitted use and alterations. What the tenant may do to the premises and what needs consent.

Each of these blanks becomes a factual argument later, decided on whatever evidence the parties happen to have. Filling them in is a drafting exercise; arguing about them afterwards is a case.

3. Getting notice wrong

Notice is where technically strong cases fail. If the contract or the law requires a notice to be given in a particular form, within a particular period, or through a particular channel, a notice given any other way may simply not count — and the party who relied on it has to start again.

The practical discipline is short. Read the notice provision before drafting the notice, not after. Send it by a method that generates proof of dispatch and receipt. Keep the proof. Diarise the date the period expires. Do not rely on a conversation, a message to a leasing agent, or an email to an address the contract does not name.

4. Building the file after the dispute starts

By the time a tenancy claim is filed, the material that will decide it either exists or it does not. The contract, the payment records, the dated correspondence, the photographs and the inspection reports were either kept during the tenancy or they were not, and nothing can be created afterwards to replace them.

That evidence has to exist before it is needed. Photograph the property at handover and at exit. Keep receipts and bank records for every payment, including cheques. Put complaints in writing at the time — a maintenance issue raised by phone and never followed up in writing is very hard to prove. Where a landlord and tenant reach an understanding during the tenancy, record it in a short signed variation rather than leaving it as goodwill.

5. Treating litigation as the first step

Not every disagreement needs a filed claim. Many tenancy disputes are about a sum of money that both sides would rather resolve than spend on the argument, and a negotiated settlement or a mediated one preserves a commercial relationship that a contested hearing destroys.

Where the parties want a decided outcome outside the ordinary process, arbitration is available for commercial tenancies if the contract provides for it. It has to be chosen deliberately, in the contract, before there is anything to arbitrate — an arbitration clause is worth little if it is drafted so vaguely that the first dispute is about the clause itself.

6. Ignoring the deadline for the step you actually need

Tenancy law works through periods: notice periods before renewal on changed terms, notice before eviction on particular grounds, and time limits attached to particular claims. Missing one rarely destroys the underlying right, but it usually pushes the remedy out to the next cycle, which can mean carrying on with a tenancy the landlord wanted to end, or a rent the tenant wanted reviewed, until the next opportunity comes round.

The answer is to work out, at the start of the tenancy rather than at the point of conflict, which dates matter for that contract and put them in a calendar.

The habits that prevent all six

For landlords with a portfolio, the highest-value change is standardising the contract so that repairs, notice, renewal and handover are covered consistently across every unit, and keeping a file per tenancy in which everything is dated. For tenants, it is reading the notice and renewal provisions before signing, photographing the property on the day of handover, and raising problems in writing while they are small.

For both, it is knowing before a dispute arises which forum will decide it, because that determines what evidence will be looked at and how quickly.

Related services

Nour Attorneys acts for landlords and tenants in Tenancy Dispute Resolution matters, and advises across related areas:

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should seek professional legal advice tailored to their specific circumstances before making any decisions or taking any action based on the content of this article.

Nour Attorneys Team

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