The air conditioning failed — whose bill is it? Dubai law puts maintenance on the landlord, but the rule opens with four words that change everything: "unless otherwise agreed". We work through the obligations of both sides in the official text of Law No. 26 of 2007 — handover, repairs, deposit, return of the property, government fees — and through what the law deliberately does not regulate.
Verified on 15 September 2026 against official sources: the text of Law No. 26 of 2007 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: a dispute is decided on the wording of the particular contract and on the facts.
"Who pays for the repair" sounds the same coming from a tenant and from a landlord, and each of them has a different answer — because both usually remember only half of the rule. The law does put maintenance on the landlord. And in the same sentence it allows the parties to agree otherwise.
The governing document is Law No. (26) of 2007 Regulating the Relationship between Landlords and Tenants in the Emirate of Dubai, issued on 26 November 2007. The obligations of the two sides sit in Articles 15–22, and they have to be read in sequence: taken one at a time, each of them creates a false impression.
What the landlord owes
Article 15 — hand over a usable property.
«The Landlord will be bound to hand over the Real Property in good condition, which allows the Tenant full use stated in the Lease Contract.» — Law No. (26) of 2007, Article 15
This is a rule about move-in day: the property is handed over in a condition that allows the use written into the contract. That is what makes a photographed handover report worth the twenty minutes it takes — it records what was actually handed over.
Article 16 — the one about repairs.
«Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, the Landlord will, during the term of the Lease Contract, be responsible for the Real Property maintenance works and for repairing any defect or damage that may affect the Tenant's intended use of the Real Property.»
The default position of the law: maintenance and the fixing of defects sit with the landlord, for the whole term, and the rule reaches anything that affects the intended use of the property. But the opening words — "unless otherwise agreed by the parties" — make the rule a default rather than a command. A contract may allocate the cost differently, and then the contract governs.
This is exactly where the familiar clauses live: "repairs up to a stated amount at the tenant's cost, above it at the landlord's". The law names no threshold in dirhams — not 500, not 1,000, not any other figure. Any specific number in that position came from your contract, not from the statute; and if the contract is silent, there is no threshold and the default of Article 16 applies.
Article 17 — no changes that defeat the use.
«The Landlord may not make to the Real Property or any of its amenities or annexes any changes that would preclude the Tenant from full use of the Real Property as intended.»
Article 18 — provide the approvals.
«The Landlord must provide the Tenant with the approvals required to be submitted to the competent official entities in the Emirate whenever the Tenant wishes to carry out decoration works or any other works that require such approvals, provided that such works do not affect the structure of the Real Property and that the Tenant has the official documents requesting such approvals.»
Two conditions are built into the rule itself: the works must not affect the structure, and the tenant must hold the official documents requesting the approval. Where both hold, providing the approval is an obligation, not a favour.
What the tenant owes
Article 19 — pay, and look after the place.
«The Tenant must pay the Rent on due dates and maintain the Real Property in such a manner as an ordinary person would maintain his own property.»
The standard of care is stated in plain language: the way an ordinary person would treat property of their own. That is not "service the building instead of the landlord"; it is "do not let it break".
Article 21 — return it as you found it.
«Upon the expiry of the term of the Lease Contract, the Tenant will must surrender possession of the Real Property to the Landlord in the same condition in which the Tenant received it at the time of entering into the Lease Contract except for ordinary wear and tear or for damage due to reasons beyond the Tenant's control.»
Two exceptions are written into the text: ordinary wear and tear, and damage from causes beyond the tenant's control. Withholding a deposit for paint that has simply aged runs against the rule.
Article 22 — government fees for use.
«Unless the Lease Contract states otherwise, the Tenant must pay all fees and taxes due to Government entities and departments for use of the Real Property.»
A default again — "unless the Lease Contract states otherwise". Absent such a clause, fees charged by government bodies for the use of the property fall on the tenant. The most visible one is the 5% municipality housing fee that arrives as a line on the DEWA bill; how it is calculated is covered separately.
The deposit: what the law says, and what it leaves out
Article 20:
«When entering into a Lease Contract, the Landlord may obtain from the Tenant a security deposit to ensure maintenance of the Real Property upon the expiry of the Lease Contract.»
The rule is short, and what is missing from it matters. The law permits a deposit and states its purpose — securing the condition of the property at the end of the term. It sets no amount, no deadline for return, and no procedure for withholding. All of that belongs to the contract. Which is why a deposit dispute is almost always decided by the pair "Article 21 (ordinary wear and tear excepted) plus the move-in condition report", and almost never by citing Article 20.
Summary: the statutory default and what overrides it
| Question | Default in the law | Overridden by | article |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maintenance and defects | landlord | agreement of the parties | 16 |
| Condition at handover | fit for the contracted use | — | 15 |
| Landlord altering the property | barred where it defeats use | — | 17 |
| Approvals for decoration works | provided by the landlord | conditions inside the article | 18 |
| Careful use | tenant | — | 19 |
| Security deposit | permitted, amount unspecified | the contract | 20 |
| Returning the property | as received, less ordinary wear | — | 21 |
| Government fees for use | tenant | the contract | 22 |
Half the rows are overridable by contract — and that is the real conclusion. In Dubai a "who pays" dispute is won not by knowing the law in general, but by knowing which of the two columns applies to your case.
Four practical steps
- Find the maintenance clause in your contract. Its absence is not a gap that works against you — it returns you to the default of Article 16, which is the landlord.
- Record the condition at move-in. Dated photographs and a handover report are the only thing that, a year later, separates "ordinary wear and tear" under Article 21 from "damage".
- Put requests and refusals in writing. A verbal exchange cannot be produced; for a formal dispute it equals nothing.
- Check that the contract is registered. A claim at the Rental Disputes Centre starts from registration in Ejari; the filing procedure is covered here.
The edges of this article
Law No. 26 of 2007 governs the landlord–tenant relationship, but not everything connected with the upkeep of a home:
- The service charge on common property is paid by the owner, not the tenant, and is calculated through a separate mechanism — the Mollak index: see the breakdown.
- A rent increase at renewal is not Article 16 but a separate Decree with its own steps and notice period: Decree 43 and the 90-day rule.
- Eviction runs under Article 25 of the same law, with a closed list of grounds and a twelve-month notice: the breakdown.
Sources
- Law No. (26) of 2007 Regulating the Relationship between Landlords and Tenants in the Emirate of Dubai — Dubai Legislation Portal: Articles 15 (handover), 16 (maintenance), 17 (alterations), 18 (approvals), 19 (tenant's obligations), 20 (deposit), 21 (return), 22 (government fees). Issued 26 November 2007.
- u.ae — Leasing a property in the UAE — UAE Government portal: registration of lease contracts through Ejari, the municipality housing fee on the utility bill.
