Common areas and owners committees under Dubai law

Dubai changed the way its buildings are run on 4 September 2019. Law No. (6) of 2019 Concerning Ownership of Jointly Owned Real Property repealed Law No. (27) of 2007 outright, and the owners association went with it. Article 49 transferred every right and obligation of the old associations to Management Entities. Under Article 52 the law came into force sixty days after publication in the Official Gazette. What owners got instead is a committee.

The implementing Directions of 2010 were not swept away. Article 51(b) keeps the bylaws, regulations and resolutions made under the 2007 law in force, to the extent they do not contradict the new law, until superseding ones are issued. Two sets of rules sit on the same shelf, and part of the older set is dead on contact with the newer. The Direction for General Regulation Concerning Jointly Owned Properties, effective from 13 April 2010, still carries the disclosure regime a developer owes a buyer. The Association Constitution beside it governs a body that no longer manages anything.

The committee is a voice, not a board

Article 22(a) caps an Owners Committee at nine members, appointed by RERA, including the chairman and vice chairman. It is constituted once at least ten per cent of the units are registered in the Real Property Register in owners' names. Membership under Article 22(c) requires full legal capacity, ownership of a unit the member lives in, good character and repute, payment of service and usage charges, and attendance at meetings. A developer may sit only while he owns unsold units. RERA may reconstitute a committee at any time.

Article 23 sets the rhythm. The committee convenes every three months, and meets first within thirty days of being constituted. A meeting is valid if a majority attend and the chairman or vice chairman is present. Each member has one vote whether he owns a single unit or several. The Management Entity, not the committee, provides the room and appoints the rapporteur. The committee holds no bank account, because Article 30 places the service charges account with the Management Entity.

The eight things a committee may do

Article 24 opens with the word "exclusively", then lists the committee's entire authority.

• Verify that the Management Entity manages, operates, maintains and repairs the common parts properly.
• Review the annual maintenance budgets, recommend on them, and request the financial reports.
• Discuss obstacles and put recommendations to the Management Entity or RERA.
• Receive complaints from owners and occupants, pass them on, and escalate to RERA if nothing is done within fourteen days.
• Ask RERA to replace the Management Entity of a Category 3 project, and advise on the replacement.
• Report structural defects, or damage to common parts needing urgent repair.
• Coordinate with RERA or the competent authority on safety, environmental and security matters.
• Propose how common parts are used, or amendments to the Building Management Regulation, which RERA must approve.

Recommend, review, request, report. No power to hire, to dismiss, to contract or to set a charge.

Getting on the committee

Dubai Land Department runs the application as an e-service, still listed as Registration of Owners Association Application. Companies apply through the DLD website via Mollak; individual owners through the Dubai REST app. Published delivery time is fifteen minutes. The conditions repeat Article 22(c) and add one the law does not: a certificate of good conduct from Dubai Police. As of September 2026 the page lists no fee.

Three categories, three managers

Article 18 splits jointly owned property into three categories. Category 1, Major Projects, are identified by criteria set in a resolution of the Director General, and the developer is responsible for management, operation, maintenance and repair. Category 2, Hotel Projects, must have their common parts managed by a Hotel Project Management Company, and a committee exists only if that company asks for one. Where it exists, Article 18(a)(2) states it "will not be authorised to participate in the management of the Hotel Project or its Common Parts".

Category 3 covers everything else, where most apartment buildings sit. There the common parts are managed by a specialised management company "selected and contracted by RERA". Owners do not appoint the manager. Neither does the developer. A Category 1 developer may outsource his duties under Article 18(c) with RERA's approval, and under Article 19 a master developer must outsource common facilities under an agreement RERA approves in advance.

Removal is regulated separately. Article 38 lets RERA replace an incompetent Category 3 management company: notify the Owners Committee and seek its opinion, warn the company in writing and allow fourteen days to answer, appoint a certified audit firm to audit the service charges account against the approved budget, and give thirty days to hand over. Damage it caused comes out of its bank guarantee. For Categories 1 and 2, Article 37 gives that power to the CEO.

The service charges account

Article 27(a) is the control point. No Management Entity may charge owners, or collect from them, anything at all for managing the common parts without RERA's prior approval. Article 27(b) goes further: RERA may not approve the budget unless a certified audit firm recognised by RERA has approved it first. Where that is incomplete, Article 27(c) allows a temporary budget.

Article 30 governs the money once collected. A separate account for each jointly owned property, at a bank licensed in the Emirate and recognised by RERA. Charges deposited within seven working days. No attachment of those funds in favour of the Management Entity's creditors. Ten permitted uses and nothing else, from cleaning and security through insurance premiums and audit fees. Article 36 requires a bank guarantee to DLD, in an amount DLD sets, against damage caused by the Management Entity's negligence.

The reserve fund

The whole of the reserve fund in the current law is one sub-paragraph. Article 30(e)(8) permits service charge money to be used for "creating a cash reserve to cover emergency expenses, or to replace equipment and devices in Common Parts". That reserve sits in an account separate from the service charges account, and may not be drawn on other than in a critical emergency without RERA's prior approval. Under Article 30(f), where the reserve does not cover the emergency, DLD may ask owners to make up the shortfall, again only with RERA's approval.

Law No. (6) of 2019 fixes no percentage, no minimum balance and no valuation cycle. The figure comes from the budget RERA approves, not from the statute. For older buildings the 2010 disclosure regime is the better record of intent. Article 4(1)(g) of the General Regulation required a developer, before a consumer signed, to hand over a budget for both the general fund and the reserve fund covering the proposed association's first two financial years, and Article 4(1)(h) an estimate of the charges payable to each. Retrieve that pack if it survives.

Unpaid charges

Article 28 removes the two usual arguments. An owner may not refrain from paying charges RERA has approved, and may not waive his interest in the common parts to escape them. Article 32(a) gives the Management Entity a lien on every unit and bars disposal until the charges are paid. The owner gets thirty days from a written notice in a RERA-approved form; after that the claim is enforceable by the execution judge at the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre, who may order the unit sold at public auction. Article 29 bars blocking an owner's use of his unit to force payment.

Penalties, grievances and the text that governs

Article 44(a) sets a fine of not less than one million dirhams, doubled on repetition of the same violation within a year, capped at two million. Which acts count is left to a resolution of the Chairman of the Executive Council. The 2010 Direction supplies the small change: up to AED 2,000 on an owner or occupier who ignores a Community Rules Enforcement Notice under its Article 19, and up to AED 100,000 where common areas go unmaintained after a rectification notice under its Article 26. A written grievance goes to the Director General within thirty days under Article 46.

A warning about sources. Practitioners cite the 2010 instruments by number, but DLD publishes them by name, and its copy of the General Regulation cross-refers at Article 23(1)(g) to "the Jointly Owned Property Declaration Regulations (No # of 2010)" with the number left unfilled. The Association Constitution in the same library is a scanned image with no searchable text. Check the Arabic before quoting any article number in correspondence.