Dubai has introduced a mandatory Quality and Safety Certificate for buildings that have reached twenty years from the date of their Completion Certificate. The law reaches EVERY building in the emirate — free zones and the DIFC included, and buildings constructed before it came into force included. The certificate runs for 10 years, or 5 for buildings over forty. The owner must engage an engineering firm, rectify the defects and, where needed, secure vacation of the building by its occupants while the works are done.
Read against the official records on 15 September 2026: the text of Law No. 3 of 2026 comes from the Dubai Legislation Portal (dlp.dubai.gov.ae). Source links sit next to every article of the law and again at the end. This is not legal advice: how the law applies to a particular building is for the competent entity of that zone to determine.
Dubai's secondary market stopped being a market of new towers a long time ago. Buildings in the Marina, JLT, Discovery Gardens, the Greens and Deira are into their second or third decade, and until 2026 their condition was a matter of how conscientious the owner and the management company happened to be. It is now a matter of law.
Law No. (3) of 2026 Concerning the Quality and Safety of Buildings in the Emirate of Dubai was issued on 27 February 2026. It introduces a mandatory Quality and Safety Certificate — a document about the state of a building, without which a property past a certain age is not confirmed as fit for use.
What the document is
Article 2 defines it:
«A document issued by the Competent Entity confirming the quality, safety, and suitability for use of a Building, after assessing its structural condition in accordance with the provisions of this Law and the resolutions issued in pursuance hereof.» — Law No. (3) of 2026, Article 2
The same article defines the competent entity functionally rather than by name:
«An entity legally authorised to regulate, license, and oversee Construction Works within the zones under its supervision in the Emirate.»
Which means different bodies in different zones of the emirate, each within its own. For an owner the practical import is single: approach the regulator of your zone rather than hunting for one window covering all of Dubai.
No zone is carved out
The most consequential sentence in the law is Article 3:
«The provisions of this Law apply to all Buildings within the Emirate, including those located in Special Development Zones and Free Zones, such as the Dubai International Financial Centre, regardless of whether they were constructed before or after the effective date of this Law.»
The two exemptions people normally count on are closed in that one sentence: free zones and the DIFC are named explicitly, and retroactive reach over already-built stock is stated as its own clause. Older buildings are in scope — and they are in scope first.
What the owner must do
Article 9 lists the obligations in detail. The load-bearing ones:
«For the purposes of this Law, an Owner must: (1) obtain a Quality and Safety Certificate after the lapse of twenty (20) years from the date on which the Completion Certificate of the Building is issued;»
Then the machinery, which is what makes this more than a formality:
«(3) contract an Engineering Firm to evaluate the condition of the Building and issue the Technical Report, in preparation for obtaining the Quality and Safety Certificate;»
«(5) contract a Contractor, under the supervision of the Engineering Firm, to implement the works required to rectify the technical defects identified in the Technical Report;»
«(7) take the necessary action to secure vacation of the Building by its Occupants to enable the Contractor to implement the required works and rectify technical defects in the Building;»
So the sequence is engineering firm → technical report → defects rectified by a contractor under that firm's supervision → certificate. Point (7) is a subject of its own for the rental market: the law expressly contemplates the case where a building has to be vacated for the works.
And one obligation applies to buildings that have not yet reached twenty:
«(4) perform periodic maintenance for any Building that has been constructed for less than twenty (20) years from the date of issuance of its Completion Certificate, whether on his own initiative or upon request by the Competent Entity, and rectify any defects that may pose a Risk to the structural safety of the Building, the safety of lives and property therein, and the surrounding Buildings;»
The duty does not sleep until the twentieth anniversary; before then it exists as periodic maintenance and the rectification of defects that create a risk.
How long the certificate lasts
Article 13:
«The validity period of a Quality and Safety Certificate will be as follows: (1) ten (10) years for Buildings whose Completion Certificates were issued less than forty (40) years ago; and (2) five (5) years for Buildings whose Completion Certificates were issued forty (40) years ago or more.»
| Age of the building by its Completion Certificate | Validity of the certificate | article |
|---|---|---|
| less than 40 years | 10 years | 13 |
| 40 years or more | 5 years | 13 |
The period is renewable for the same length; the conditions and procedure for renewal are left by the law to a resolution of the Chairman of the Executive Council.
Timing and liability
The law comes into force sixty days after publication in the Official Gazette (Article 25), and compliance is given a year:
«All Owners, Contractors, and Engineering Firms to whom the provisions of this Law apply must comply with its provisions within one (1) year from the date on which this Law comes into force.» — Law No. (3) of 2026, Article 22
Fines are set as a range, not a tariff: the amount for a specific violation is fixed by a separate resolution.
| Violation | Fine under the law | article |
|---|---|---|
| breach of the law or of resolutions issued under it | not less than AED 100 and not more than AED 1,000,000 | 16 |
| repetition within two years | doubled, but not exceeding AED 2,000,000 | 16 |
The upper end of the range is the ceiling in the statute, not a typical penalty; treating it as the going rate would be wrong.
Why the law exists at all
Article 4 states the aims in its own words: raise the quality and safety standards of buildings, preserve their structural integrity, secure the comfort and well-being of occupants by periodically verifying that systems and facilities operate safely, reduce accidents, and improve the appearance of the built environment. The phrase "periodically verifying the safe and proper operation of all systems and facilities of Buildings" also explains the mechanism chosen: not a one-off amnesty but a repeating cycle, with an expiry date on the document.
What this means in practice
If you own a flat in an older tower. The duty is addressed to the owner of the building; in a multi-unit building the works on common property run through the management company and are funded by the service charge, whose rate the regulator approves — the mechanism is covered in the article on service charges and Mollak. The sensible move is to ask the management company about its plan for obtaining the certificate and what works are budgeted.
If you are buying on the secondary market. The age of the building has stopped being a matter of taste. For a unit in a building approaching twenty years or beyond, there is now a checkable fact: whether a certificate exists, when it expires, what defects the technical report named. It belongs in due diligence next to the entry in the Land Department register — why only that entry proves the right.
If you are a tenant. Article 9(7) contemplates a building being vacated for the works. That does not displace tenancy law: the grounds and notice periods live in Law No. 26 of 2007 and are covered here, while the parties' repair and upkeep obligations are covered here.
What the source does not say
- The exact date of entry into force. The law ties it to publication in the Official Gazette plus sixty days (Article 25); we have not verified the publication date itself and therefore do not state it.
- Which body is your competent entity. The law defines it functionally, by the zone the building sits in; the actual name depends on the zone.
- A schedule of fines. The statute gives a range (Article 16); amounts for specific violations are set by a separate resolution, which we do not quote because we have not checked it.
- A list of affected buildings. We have not seen a register of "who is due" and are not constructing one from years of delivery: the date on a Completion Certificate is a fact in that building's documents, not in our database.
Sources
- Law No. (3) of 2026 Concerning the Quality and Safety of Buildings in the Emirate of Dubai — Dubai Legislation Portal: Article 2 (definitions of the certificate and the competent entity), Article 3 (scope, free zones and the DIFC), Article 4 (aims), Article 9 (owner's obligations), Article 13 (validity and renewal), Article 16 (fines), Article 22 (one year to comply), Article 25 (entry into force). Issued 27 February 2026.
