All new property leases signed in Dubai from next month must be completed using a standard form, Dubai Land Department has said.

In a widely expected announcement on Wednesday, DLD unveiled its new unified lease form, which is expected to be used by all residential and commercial tenants and landlords in Dubai.

DLD said the new form had been designed to regulate relationships between all parties involved in real estate transactions and guarantees the rights of all parties. The standard form, written in English and Arabic, includes eight standard terms and conditions requiring the tenant to use the premises for its designated purpose, to pay electricity and water bills unless otherwise agreed, to stick to the rules for the common parts of the building and to settle disputes at the DLD Rent Committee.

Copies of the new standard lease can be downloaded from DLD’s ejari website www.ejari.ae.

DLD said that the new lease had been drafted with reference to law 25 of 2008, which specifies the grounds by which landlords can evict tenants including illegally subletting the property or using it to carry out illegal activities. It added that under law 26 of 2007, landlords are responsible for carrying out maintenance unless there is an agreement between the tenant and the landlord to say otherwise.

Hamdan Al Madhani, director of the Rental Relations Regulatory Department, commented: “The applied unified lease form primarily depends on the legal system, and having unified contracts between the parties guarantees the rights of all stakeholders involved.

Currently landlords in Dubai use a variety of tenancy contract forms, some of which include standard terms and conditions which contradict recent Dubai laws.

“This is much better than the previous standard forms which are currently in use by estate agents,” said Mario Volpi, chief sales officer at Kensington Luxury Real Estate Brokers in Dubai. “On some of the forms which were in use I’ve seen clauses saying that renewal of the contract is at the discretion of the landlord, which contradicts current Dubai law.”

Separately on Wednesday, DLD reported that the value of real estate transactions completed during the first 45 days of 2017 totalled Dh42 billion – nearly half the Dh91bn recorded for all of 2016.

At an event to promote this year’s International Property Show in Dubai, Majid Al Marri, senior director of the Real Estate Investment Management and Promotion Center at DLD said: “The growth now is very obvious in the first 45 days of this year. The realty industry in Dubai has taken a positive curve since the beginning of the year.”

lbarnard@thenational.ae

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