Have a bounced cheque from a tenant?

No — and doing so can expose you to criminal liability, not just a lost case. Under UAE law, a landlord cannot take possession of a rented property without a court order, even where the tenant has clearly stopped paying and gone silent. Entering or changing locks without going through the proper legal process is treated as a criminal offense, regardless of how justified the underlying grievance is. The correct path is to file for eviction through the Rental Disputes Centre and have the property handed over through court enforcement — not to take matters into your own hands.

No — you're generally entitled to claim rent for the entire period the tenant continues occupying the property, right up until the date the court's enforcement team physically hands the keys back to you. This is why acting quickly and going through the proper legal channel matters — the rent owed keeps accruing until the eviction is formally executed, not just until the court issues its judgment.

Yes. UAE rental law treats a new owner as the "special successor" of the previous owner — meaning a valid 12-month eviction notice given by the seller before the sale still applies, and the new owner can rely on it to pursue eviction after taking ownership.

No. Under Dubai's rental law, a contract clause stating the lease will simply "expire" or "not renew" has no legal weight on its own, even if the tenant signed it. A landlord can only end a tenancy at expiry for one of four legally recognized reasons — selling the property, personal or family use, major renovation making occupancy impossible, or demolition and reconstruction — and only after serving 12 months' notice through a notary public or registered mail. Without both a valid reason and correctly served notice, the tenancy renews automatically regardless of what the contract says.

Yes — but only through a genuine mutual agreement made after the lease has already started, not a clause included in the original contract. The Rental Disputes Centre has repeatedly held that an early-exit clause signed at the very start of a tenancy isn't enforceable on its own, since the law recognizes a tenant may feel pressure to accept one-sided terms at signing. A valid early termination needs to be a separate written agreement, made later, clearly stating the exit date and conditions, and signed by both parties once they're on equal footing.

No — and this matters a lot. UAE rental law requires eviction notices to be served through a Notary Public or registered mail. A landlord sending a notice from a personal or staff email address does not satisfy this requirement, and a notice served this way can be thrown out entirely, regardless of whether the landlord's underlying reason for eviction was valid.

Unless the tenancy contract explicitly says otherwise, the tenant is responsible for all utility and cooling charges, including after the contract is renewed on the same terms.

Both. A valid rent increase requires the landlord to (1) give proper notice within the required period before renewal, and (2) support the increase percentage with the official Rental Index. Missing either one is enough for the claim to be rejected.

Yes. While the law sets 90 days as the default, if the tenancy contract itself specifies a different notice period (for example, 30 days), that contractual term is enforceable and takes priority over the statutory default.

This is a recognized basis for a compensation claim. A landlord who evicts a tenant on stated grounds of selling the property, but instead re-lets it to a new tenant, can be held liable for both material and moral damages to the evicted tenant.

Not by itself. If you want to preserve your right to a renewal while a landlord refuses to sign a new contract, you generally need to formally deposit the rent through the proper legal channel (court-supervised offer and deposit), not just continue paying informally or verbally offering to pay.

No. The Centre's jurisdiction is limited to disputes arising from an actual, completed tenancy relationship. A dispute over a mere booking form or a "promise to lease" that never became a full signed tenancy contract falls outside its jurisdiction and belongs before the regular Dubai courts instead.

Not always. Judgments below a certain value threshold from the first-instance committee are generally final and cannot be appealed, unless specific exceptions apply — such as the judgment ordering eviction, a jurisdiction error, a party not being properly represented, or the case involving forged documents.

Not necessarily. If a landlord had valid grounds to evict but instead pursued a different case (like defending a renewal claim) without invoking that notice, this delay can be treated as an implicit waiver of their right to rely on it later.