Power of attorney, when you cannot be there.
Plenty of Dubai owners live abroad, yet the trustee office and the bank still want someone standing at the counter. This is how a power of attorney gets round that, what the attestation costs from abroad, and why we'd keep yours narrow.
Updated
With a power of attorney, someone you trust can sell your Dubai property for you, or let it, or sign at the bank or the developer. If you sign it at a notary in Dubai, it’s done in a day for roughly AED 100 to 300 per signature. From abroad it’s slower. The paper has to go via the UAE Embassy and then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which commonly takes 15 to 30 business days and costs AED 1,000 to 3,000.
In short
Someone acts on the property for you while you stay put. They can only do what the document spells out, though.
Signing in Dubai? Roughly AED 100 to 300 per signature, usable the same day, and it'll need to be in Arabic or have a legalised Arabic translation attached.
From abroad, allow 15 to 30 business days while it passes from your local notary to the UAE Embassy and on to the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A general one may let the holder sell. Most owners are better off with a restricted one naming the act and the unit.
What it covers
Dubai still runs on people turning up in person. If you can’t be there, the notarised paper names who goes instead and what they’re allowed to do once they arrive.
| Act | Where it is shown |
|---|---|
| Sign a sale contract and attend the transfer | The trustee office |
| Register a tenancy on Ejari and collect rent | Ejari |
| Deal with a handover date or a service charge account | The developer |
| Sign and register a mortgage, or discharge one | The bank |
| Apply for a replacement title deed | The Land Department |
The acts owners most often delegate, as of September 2026. The document covers only the acts it names, and each counter checks the wording before it accepts the holder.
Anything left out of the wording is out of bounds. Say yours was drafted for a sale and your cousin takes it to register an Ejari contract. It may not stretch that far, and he finds out only after queueing.
Signing here or abroad
The big variable is where you are when you sign. In the UAE, one visit does it. Anywhere else, the paper has to be authenticated three separate times before Dubai will look at it.
| Signed in Dubai | Signed abroad | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it starts | Dubai Courts public notary | A notary where you are |
| Steps after that | None | UAE Embassy, then UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
| Language | Arabic, or legalised translation | Same |
| Typical cost | AED 100 to 300 per signature | AED 1,000 to 3,000, sometimes more |
| How long | Same day | 15 to 30 business days |
Notary and attestation fees current at September 2026 and indicative. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes AED 150 for an individual-affairs document. Embassy fees, courier charges and translation rates vary by country, and a law firm or service provider adds its own fee on top.
The Ministry only charges AED 150. It’s everything around it that pushes the bill into four figures, from the notary at home to the embassy fee and the couriers between them. And if you’re already selling, get the document moving before you agree a completion date. A buyer’s bank won’t sit around waiting for an embassy stamp.
General or restricted
A general power of attorney is wide. Depending on how it’s drafted, it might let the holder sell your flat. The restricted kind names one act, usually the unit as well, and goes no further.
Need a tenancy registered while you’re in London? Restricted is fine. Selling one named apartment? Same. We’d only go wide if someone is going to look after lots of unrelated things for you over years.
Why wide documents cause trouble
Read the draft yourself before the notary sees it. Wherever it reaches further than the job, ask for it to be cut back. Most of the trouble owners run into started with a wide document, and it was usually wide only because nobody asked for a narrower one.
Before you sign
Name the acts, and name the property.
"May deal with my Dubai real estate" covers far more than "may sell apartment 1203 in this tower". Tell the drafter the exact transaction. Then check the Arabic matches the English, line by line.
Check the holder will be accepted.
Each bank has its own view on who may sign for a mortgage, and some refuse anyone who isn't family. Ask yours first. Get rejected after attestation and you're back to square one.
Put an end date in the document.
No expiry means it's valid until you revoke it, which could be years. We'd write in a date that covers the deal with a bit of slack, so the thing lapses by itself once you're done with it.
Revoke it when the job is finished.
That means a trip to the notary, then a message to anyone who'd been relying on it. People forget, since by then the deal feels over. Meanwhile somebody else is still holding live authority over your property.
We wrote this in September 2026 as general information for owners; it isn’t legal advice. The fees are indicative and every country, and frankly every notary, does it a bit differently. So before you rely on any of it, ask a notary or a lawyer, or the office that’ll be receiving the document, what they need today.
Questions
What is a power of attorney for property in Dubai?
Can I sell my Dubai property without flying there?
How much does a power of attorney cost in Dubai?
How long does attestation take if I sign outside the UAE?
Should I give a general or a specific power of attorney?
How do I cancel a power of attorney?
Related
- Owning from abroadWhat distance changes about running a Dubai property, and what it costs.
- Letting from abroadHaving the unit let and run while you live somewhere else.
- Ejari registrationOne of the acts a power of attorney is most often used for.
- What it costs to sell in DubaiThe sale your representative would be completing, priced out in full.
Mulki keeps the deed, the contracts and the dates on every unit, wherever you happen to be.