Law No. 9 of 2020 gives a family an instrument ordinary co-ownership does not offer: the family property contract. It has six conditions of validity, a ceiling of fifteen years renewable for the same length, a manager appointed by partners holding at least two-thirds, and a share that must first be offered to the other partners — it can pass to an outsider only with the approval of partners holding at least 51%. Worked through the official text on the Dubai Legislation Portal.
Verified on 15 September 2026 against official sources: the text of Law No. 9 of 2020 comes from the Dubai Legislation Portal (dlp.dubai.gov.ae). Source links sit next to every article and again at the end. This is not legal advice: a particular arrangement is judged on its own documents.
Co-owning property within a family usually runs on trust and collapses at the first disagreement: one wants to sell, another to let, a third is unreachable. Dubai has a dedicated legal instrument for exactly this.
The document is Law No. (9) of 2020 Regulating Family Property in the Emirate of Dubai, issued on 13 August 2020.
Six conditions of validity
Article 6 lists the requirements for a family property contract:
«1. All parties to the contract must be members of a single Family; 2. All parties to the contract must be engaged together in business or have a common interest; 3. The share of each Partner must be determined in the Family Property Contract; 4. The parties to the Family Property Contract must own, or have the right to dispose of, the property; 5. The Family Property Contract must be attested by a Notary Public; 6. The Family Property Contract must not conflict with public order.» — Law No. (9) of 2020, Article 6
The second condition is the one most often missed. Kinship alone is not enough: the law requires a shared business or a common interest. The third is no less practical: each partner's share must be determined in the contract itself, not left implied.
Duration: fifteen years, and never indefinite
Article 8(a):
«The term of a Family Property Contract will be determined by agreement of the Partners, but may not exceed fifteen (15) years. The contract may be renewed unanimously by the Partners for the term they agree upon, provided that this term does not exceed fifteen (15) years.»
Two things are stated precisely: a ceiling of fifteen years and unanimity on renewal. The arrangement is therefore never created "forever": every fifteen years the family has to agree again, and a single dissenting partner is enough to stop it.
Management: two-thirds, not a simple majority
Article 16(a) on appointing the manager:
«appointed pursuant to a resolution of a number of Partners who own at least two-thirds (2/3) of the Family Property»
And Article 21 mirrors the removal: the manager is removed in the cases stated in the contract, in the manner in which, and by the majority by which, he is appointed.
Note the contrast with ordinary co-ownership: the threshold is not "more than half" but two-thirds, and it is identical on the way in and on the way out. A one-third minority can block a change of manager.
Shares: to the family first
Article 13(b) creates a right of pre-emption: a partner wishing to dispose of his share must first offer it to the other partners. Exceptions are named — transfers to a spouse, a first-degree relative, or specific partners.
Article 13(c) adds a second barrier: neither a partner nor an heir may dispose of a share to someone who is not a partner without the prior approval of partners holding at least 51% of the family property. We do not print a verbatim English quotation of this clause: the extract of the portal page we received contains a typographical error in one word, and reproducing corrupted text as a quotation is not acceptable — the figures and the substance are verified, the source's spelling is not.
The wording reaches an heir as well. That is the point of the arrangement for a family: a share cannot suddenly end up with an outsider — neither during a partner's life nor after it — without the consent of a holding majority.
Three thresholds in one table
| Action | Majority required | article |
|---|---|---|
| appointing the manager | at least 2/3 | 16(a) |
| removing the manager | the same as for appointment | 21 |
| disposing of a share to an outsider | at least 51% | 13(c) |
| renewing the contract | unanimous | 8(a) |
Three different thresholds for three different decisions is not sloppiness but design: day-to-day management goes to a qualified majority, letting an outsider in requires a comfortable simple majority, and extending the arrangement itself requires everyone.
How this differs from ordinary co-ownership
Ordinary co-ownership in Dubai follows the general rules: the right is proved by the entry, and any change to it is registered — why only the register proves it. A family contract does not displace that; it sits on top, binding the partners on duration, management and exit.
It should also be distinguished from a gift to a first-degree relative — a one-off transfer with its own fee rate, not a regime of shared ownership: the breakdown. And from succession, which runs its own course: how a title passes on death.
What we are NOT claiming here
- That the law stands unamended. Law No. 21 of 2024 introduced amendments; we do not quote its text because we have not verified it, and therefore we do not say which articles it touched.
- Any tax or visa consequences. They are not in the text of the law, and we do not infer them.
- The notarial procedure or its fees. Article 6 requires attestation; the procedure and cost come from other instruments.
- That the arrangement shields property from creditors. No such statement appears in the articles we worked through, and we do not make one.
Sources
- Law No. (9) of 2020 Regulating Family Property in the Emirate of Dubai — Dubai Legislation Portal: Article 6 (six conditions of validity), Article 8(a) (term of up to fifteen years and unanimous renewal), Article 13(b) (offering the share to other partners), Article 13(c) (approval of holders of at least 51% before a share passes to an outsider, an heir included), Article 16(a) (manager appointed by holders of at least 2/3), Article 21 (removal by the same majority). Issued 13 August 2020.
