What is 迪拜驱逐通知期（迪拜法律第33号）?
迪拜租赁法规定，业主须通过公证处向租户提前12个月发出书面驱逐通知方可要求退租，且驱逐理由须符合法定条件（如自住或拆除重建）。逾期不符合要求的驱逐通知在法律上不具效力。
Description
Law No. 33 of 2008 amended Law No. 26 of 2007 and set the notice period that governs every Dubai tenancy. The notice must run a full 12 months and must be served through a notary public or by registered mail. A WhatsApp message, an email or a letter handed over at the door is not service, and the Rental Disputes Centre will treat the clock as never having started.
The 12-month notice is available on defined grounds only:
- The owner wants to occupy the property personally, or house a first-degree relative
- The owner intends to demolish and rebuild
- The property needs major renovation or maintenance that cannot be carried out while occupied
- The owner intends to sell the property
Breach of contract is the other route, and it is faster. Non-payment of rent, illegal use of the premises, subletting without written permission or damage to the unit are dealt with by a 30-day notarised notice to remedy. If the tenant does not cure the breach in those 30 days, the landlord files at the Rental Disputes Centre.
Neither route is self-executing. The notice creates the right to ask for possession; the eviction itself is ordered by the RDC, where filing costs 3.5% of the annual rent, subject to a minimum of AED 500 and a maximum of AED 20,000, and first-instance decisions typically land within one to three months.
How to interpret
Treat the 12 months as a project timeline, not a formality. A landlord who wants vacant possession for a sale in December has to serve valid notice in the preceding December and carry the unit through a full further year of tenancy at the existing rent.
The notice period is priced into tenanted stock. A unit let well below current market rent with ten months left on the notice clock is a different asset from the same unit vacant, and that gap is a legitimate negotiating point rather than a defect.
Ground selection is not cosmetic. Serving notice to occupy personally and then re-letting the unit exposes the landlord to a compensation claim at the RDC, so the ground stated in the notice should be the one the owner actually intends to act on.
迪拜市场背景
Buyers of tenanted apartments inherit the lease. A sale does not end a running tenancy, and the practical assumption for underwriting is that the 12 months starts again from the new owner's own notice after transfer, so a buyer who needs the unit empty should budget a full year of the existing rent and confirm the position with counsel before exchanging.
Rent increases are a separate instrument with a separate clock: any change to the contract terms, including the rent, requires 90 days notice before renewal, benchmarked against the RERA rental increase calculator. Serving an eviction notice does not substitute for it, and serving neither means the contract renews on identical terms.
The 12-month rule is one of the strongest tenant protections in the region, and it is enforced. Dubai landlords who assume that ownership plus goodwill produces vacant possession discover at the RDC that the file, meaning the notarised notice, the Ejari registration and the payment record, is what decides the case.
Frequently asked questions
Twelve months, in writing, served through a notary public or by registered mail, under Dubai Law No. 33 of 2008. Informal notice by email or messaging does not start the period.
Four grounds carry the 12-month notice: the owner occupying the property personally or housing a first-degree relative, demolition and rebuild, major renovation that cannot be done while occupied, and sale of the property. Breach of contract is handled separately.
Only for breach: non-payment of rent, illegal use, subletting without permission or damage. The landlord serves a 30-day notarised notice to remedy, and if the tenant does not cure it, files at the Rental Disputes Centre for an eviction order.
Sale is one of the grounds, but it still requires the full 12 months notarised notice. The sale itself does not end the tenancy: until the notice period runs, the tenant stays and the buyer takes the unit subject to the lease.
You inherit the lease on its existing terms, including the rent and the security deposit. Assume you must serve your own 12-month notice after transfer if you want the unit vacant, and budget a further year of the current rent.
No. Law No. 33 of 2008 requires service through a notary public or by registered mail. At the Rental Disputes Centre an improperly served notice is treated as no notice, and the 12 months has to be started again.
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