Housing fee calculator.

Take five per cent of the annual rental value, split it into twelve, and that lands on each DEWA bill. Pay AED 120,000 in rent and you're looking at AED 6,000 for the year, so AED 500 a month. You won't get a separate bill for it, because it's folded into what DEWA charges you.

Whoever lives there. If the flat is let, your tenant pays it, worked out on the rent registered in Ejari. If you live in it yourself, it's yours to pay. Don't mix it up with the service charge, which stays with the owner in both cases.

Who pays, and against which figure. Once the unit is let, the fee moves to the tenant against the Ejari rent; once you live there yourself, it falls to you against an assessed value. In either direction, check what the DEWA account is registered against, since that is where an unexpected charge tends to appear.

UAE nationals do not pay it. Commercial premises sit outside the residential housing fee altogether rather than being exempt from it, and carry their own municipal charge instead.

On an estimate. With no tenancy contract to go by, Dubai Municipality puts its own rental value on the property. You don't get to choose that number, and it may not match what you'd guess the place would let for. If it looks off next to what similar homes in the building rent for, there's a published service where you can ask for it to be reassessed.

They are separate charges, and easy to confuse because both recur. The service charge pays for running the building and is billed to the owner through Mollak. The housing fee is a municipal charge on occupation, collected through DEWA from whoever lives there. An owner living in the unit pays both, so counting only one understates what the year costs.

Start with the rental value behind it; the rate is a flat five per cent, so the arithmetic is rarely the problem. A tenant should check the DEWA account is linked to the current Ejari contract: a renewal never registered, or a link to an old contract, leaves the fee running against a figure that no longer applies. An owner-occupier can ask the Municipality to reassess.