Apartments for rent in Dubai: Can real estate agents insist on 4 cheques for payment?

Question: I am looking for an apartment to rent in Dubai. All of the agents I have met are demanding four-cheque payments for the annual rent, but I won't be able to afford three months of rent at a stretch. Is there a law that stipulates that annual rent must be paid in four instalments? Is there any way I can get the authorities to intervene and make agents accept payment terms that are affordable to me?

Response: Pursuant to your queries, as you are looking for a rented apartment in Dubai, the provisions of Law No. 26 of 2007 Regulating the Relationship between Landlords and Tenants in the Emirate of Dubai (the ‘Dubai Rent Law’) are applicable.

In Dubai, the landlord and tenant may mutually agree to the number of tranches and amount of each for rent payment. In the event there is no consensus on the dates of payment of rent, it may be paid in four equal instalments. In this case, the rents are payable once in three months in advance to the landlord. This is in accordance with Article 12 of the Dubai Rent Law, which states: “A Tenant shall pay the Landlord the Rent on the dates mutually agreed upon by them. In the absence of an agreement or where it is impossible to verify the payment dates, the Rent must be annually paid in four (4) equal instalments to be settled in advance."

Based on the aforementioned provision of the Dubai Rent Law, you may not be in a position to demand from the real estate agent to pay rent amounts and traches as desired by you. These matters are at the discretion of the real estate agent or the landlord of the rented apartment. Instead, you may request the real estate agent to consider payment of rent on a monthly or a bi-monthly basis. In the event the real estate agent disagrees, you may look for other rented apartments that provide terms acceptable to you.

Ashish Mehta is the founder and Managing Partner of Ashish Mehta & Associates. He is qualified to practise law in Dubai, the United Kingdom and India. Full details of his firm on: www.amalawyers.com. Readers may e-mail their questions to: news@khaleejtimes.com or send them to Legal View, Khaleej Times, PO Box 11243, Dubai.

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