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28 March 2024

Soon register your rental dispute online in Dubai

If landlord and tenant don’t mutually agree to new rent prior to a contract renewal, tenants hold the right to file case with Dubai’s Rental Dispute Settlement Centre. [Image via Shutterstock]

Published
By Parag Deulgaonkar

The hassle of going to Dubai Land Department’s Deira office to register your rental dispute will soon be a thing of past.

Landlord and tenants will be able to lodge complaints with the Rental Dispute Centre (RDC), the judicial arm of DLD, from third quarter 2015, a top government official has said.

“In the first phase the online services will be available only to government bodies and some of the emirates’ major real estate companies as a prelude to enable all customers to use the system during the third quarter of 2015,” said centre’s Chairman Justice Abdulqader Mousa Mohammed.

“The new electronic system of the centre will allow all concerned, whether plaintiffs or defendants to register their cases on the centre’s website and follow up the decisions of the cases proceedings and information on the next date.”

In a press statement, Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), a free zone entity, stated it had become the first organization sign up with RDC to lodge rental disputes online.

“The initiative allows us to log on to the centre’s online system and register our case with RDC through a quick and simple mechanism and follow through different steps and stages of the legal proceedings to reach the final resolution of the case at a very fast pace, without ever visiting the centre physically,” Ahmed Al Awadhi, Senior Vice-President, Legal Affairs & General Counsel, said.

The move is part of the implementation of smart government initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The new system has been developed by Emirates Real Estate Solutions and enables parties to pay the fee, attach documents, receive judgment copies and report of execution of decrees.

‘Emirates24|7’ has reported earlier that the RDC has to resolve most of disputes in a maximum of 30 days.

In September 2013, Dubai government issued Decree No. 26 of 2013 establishing the rental disputes settlement centre aimed to enhance legal procedures that facilitate the settlement of rental disputes which, in turn, will reflect positively on socio-economic stability among members of the community.

According to the Article 16 of the decree, all committees will have to judge all rental lawsuits within a period not exceeding 30 days from the date of referral of the case to them. The deadline may, however, be extended in accordance with the rules and procedures adopted by the chairman of the centre in this regard.

The centre’s scope of practice does not cover rental disputes arising within Dubai’s free zones, which have their own judicial committees, or special courts, to adjudicate in such matters. Moreover, its authority does not extend to disputes arising from contract leasing, as well as those arising from long-term leases covered by the provisions of Decree No. 7 for the year 2006, which pertains to real estate registration in Dubai.

The final judgments issued by the First Instance and the Appeals Departments will be executed by the Execution Department, but the chairman of the Centre may also resort to the Dubai Courts to execute judgments.