Who pays for maintenance when the place is let.
Dubai law starts with the owner and allows the parties to agree something else. Knowing how far that agreement can be pushed saves an argument at the worst possible moment.
Article 16 of Law No. 26 of 2007 makes the landlord responsible for maintenance and for repairing defects or damage affecting the tenant's intended use of the property. It applies unless the parties agree otherwise, which is why most contracts add a minor maintenance clause putting small repairs, commonly under AED 500 or AED 1,000, on the tenant. How far such a clause reaches is decided by what the repair is, not only by how the clause is worded.
In short
The default sits with the owner, and the law expressly lets the parties contract around it.
The AED 500 or AED 1,000 threshold is a convention in contracts, with no figure behind it in the law.
Clauses shifting major systems onto a tenant are weak where the repair affects use of the property.
The building's service charge covers nothing inside your own front door.
Where the line usually falls
| Item | Normally paid by |
|---|---|
| Light bulbs, filters, alarm batteries | Tenant |
| Blocked sink or shower trap | Tenant |
| Routine pest control | Tenant |
| Repairs under the contract threshold | Tenant, where the contract says so |
| Air conditioning repair and replacement | Owner |
| Plumbing and electrical faults | Owner |
| Water heater, major appliances supplied with the unit | Owner |
| Anything affecting use of the property | Owner, and hard to contract away |
| Common areas, lifts, facade, pool | Service charge, paid by the owner |
Article 16 of Law No. 26 of 2007 regulating the relationship between landlords and tenants in the Emirate of Dubai, together with standard market practice in residential tenancy contracts. Read 18 September 2026. Your own contract governs, within the limits described below.
How far a clause reaches
Article 16 is a default, and it says so.
The wording opens with unless otherwise agreed by the parties. A minor maintenance clause is therefore a legitimate variation rather than an attempt to override the law. Owners who believe no clause can bind a tenant are as mistaken as owners who believe any clause will.
Reach is judged by the repair.
Where a fault affects the tenant's intended use of the property, the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre weighs what has broken and why alongside what the contract says. A clause covering consumables and small call-outs sits comfortably. One that hands over a structural repair or a failed major system is on much thinner ground.
Silence means the default applies.
No clause, no threshold. If your contract does not mention minor maintenance, the tenant has no obligation to cover small repairs either, and you will be fielding calls about light fittings.
Write the threshold per incident.
State a figure per repair rather than a vague annual allowance, and say who appoints the contractor. Leaving either open turns a small bill into a long exchange of messages.
Running it well
The owners who spend least on maintenance are rarely the ones who argue hardest about who pays. They are the ones who fix things quickly. A serviced AC uses less power and fails less often, and a tenant whose repairs get dealt with tends to renew, which is worth more than a threshold clause ever recovers.
Keep the paperwork against the unit rather than in an inbox: the contract with its clause, the maintenance contract if you have one, and dated records of every repair. If a tenant leaves and the deposit is in dispute, that record is what you argue from. What it all comes to across a year sits in the real cost of owning, and if you would rather hand the whole thing over, the management cost calculator shows what that is worth paying for.
Summarises Article 16 of Law No. 26 of 2007 regulating the relationship between landlords and tenants in the Emirate of Dubai, together with common market practice in residential tenancy contracts, read 18 September 2026. Article 16 applies unless the parties agree otherwise, and how a particular clause is treated depends on the facts. Your own tenancy contract governs. General information for property owners, not legal advice.
Questions
- Who is responsible for maintenance in a Dubai rental?
- The landlord, unless the tenancy contract says otherwise. Article 16 of Law No. 26 of 2007 puts maintenance work, and the repair of defects or damage affecting the tenant's intended use of the property, on the owner during the lease term. It opens with the words unless otherwise agreed by the parties, so it sets a starting point rather than a rule that cannot be moved.
- What is the AED 500 maintenance clause?
- A contractual term rather than anything in the law. It says the tenant covers repairs below a stated figure and the landlord covers the rest. AED 500 is the long-standing convention and AED 1,000 appears in plenty of contracts too. If your contract does not mention a threshold, none applies and the Article 16 default stands.
- Can I make the tenant responsible for the air conditioning?
- You can write it, and whether it holds is a separate question. Article 16 permits the parties to agree a different split, so such a clause is not automatically void. Where a repair goes to whether the property can be used as intended, the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre looks at the nature of the repair rather than the drafting alone, and a clause pushing a failed AC compressor onto a tenant is not something to rely on.
- What maintenance does a tenant normally handle?
- The small recurring things: light bulbs, AC filter cleaning, smoke alarm batteries, unblocking a sink, routine pest control. These are what a minor maintenance clause is really aimed at, and they are also the items least worth falling out over.
- What happens if I refuse to carry out a repair?
- The tenant can file at the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre. On a repair affecting the use of the property, the owner tends not to enjoy the outcome. Worth weighing against the cost of the repair, which is usually the smaller number once the filing fee, the time and the relationship are counted.
- Does the service charge cover repairs inside my apartment?
- No. The service charge pays for the building: common areas, lifts, the pool, security, the facade. Everything on your side of the front door is yours, and the two budgets never meet. Owners new to jointly owned property are often caught out by this the first time an AC fails.
- Should I put a maintenance contract in place?
- On a tenanted unit it usually pays, though less for the price than for the response time. An annual contract turns an unpredictable call at an awkward hour into a scheduled visit, and it leaves a record of what was serviced when, which is worth having if a tenant later says a fault went unattended.
Mulki keeps the service history against the unit, not in your inbox.
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