Dubai broker conduct rules: duties, violations, fines and sanctions

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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A broker card in Dubai is a permission, not a possession. The name on it sits in a register kept by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, known as RERA, the regulatory arm of the Dubai Land Department, and that register can carry a warning, a suspension or, at the far end, a cancellation. Behind every listing, viewing and signed form stands a short set of legal texts that say what a broker owes the people on both sides of a deal, and what the regulator may do when those duties are not met.

The question matters because enforcement in Dubai is visible. The regulator publishes its inspection rounds, names the kind of breach it is pursuing and announces suspensions. This guide sets out the texts that govern a registered broker's conduct, the eleven principles of the Code of Ethics, the duties owed in each deal, the rules on conflicts of interest, the conduct rules that apply to advertising and calls, the published schedule of fines, the record of enforcement, the disciplinary penalties, the grounds for cancellation, and the routes by which a complaint reaches the regulator.

By-Law No. 85 of 2006 and its annexed Code of Ethics; Schedule 2 of Executive Council Resolution No. 25 of 2009.

The texts behind a broker's conduct

The core text is By-Law No. 85 of 2006 regulating the Real Estate Brokers Register in the Emirate of Dubai. It was issued on 30 May 2006 by the chairman of what was then the Lands and Property Department, under Law No. 7 of 2006 on property registration, and it took effect on the day it was signed. It creates the register, defines who may practise, lists a broker's duties, sets out how fees are earned and gives a committee the power to discipline. A Code of Ethics is annexed to it, and Article 14 requires every registered broker to follow the professional ethics that code sets out.

The money side sits in a separate text. Executive Council Resolution No. 25 of 2009, issued on 31 December 2009 by the Crown Prince of Dubai as chairman of the Executive Council, approved both RERA's service fees and a schedule of fines for violations. Its English version on the Dubai Legislation Portal is a 2015 translation by the Supreme Legislation Committee, and the Arabic text prevails where the two differ.

The regulator's own working manual is the Real Estate Brokerage Practice Guide, whose second edition RERA issued in November 2024. The guide tells brokers to follow its rules to avoid illegal practice and warns that non-compliance leads to legal measures and violations. The only legal instrument it names is By-Law No. 85 of 2006, so the by-law is still the text the regulator points brokers to.

Getting onto the register in the first place is a separate subject. This guide starts at the point where a broker is already registered and working.

The eleven principles of the Code of Ethics

The Code of Ethics annexed to the by-law is short. Each principle is written as a commitment the broker makes, and most are framed around the people a broker deals with rather than the broker's own business. RERA's 2024 practice guide lists ten principles of professional ethics; the code annexed to the by-law, which is the legal text, lists eleven.

Several principles carry practical weight. The sixth makes the registered broker responsible for preventing unlicensed people from using the office or its licence, and it adds that forgery or false data leads to investigation and disciplinary action. The eleventh reaches into conduct at the Land Department, where seeking personal favours from staff is ruled out. And the code matters beyond its wording, because a breach of it is one of the grounds on which the by-law allows a broker's registration to be cancelled.

What a broker owes in each deal

The articles of the by-law turn the principles into duties that apply to every transaction. Under Article 15, a broker records each transaction, keeps its documents and gives copies when asked; for off-plan sales, the maps and forms used must be kept until the transaction is completed. Article 16 obliges the broker to supply the information, data and statistics on brokerage activity that the Department requests.

Article 17 sets the duty of disclosure in two directions. The broker keeps the client informed of every detail of the negotiations, and also tells the other party about any substantial matter needed to avoid doubt in the agreement. Article 19 goes further: even a broker acting for one side only must present the offer faithfully and disclose the circumstances known to them, and the broker answers for any deception or mistake.

Money handled by a broker is treated as held in trust. Article 21 makes the broker the guardian of any sums, securities or items handed over by either party, to be passed on as agreed, under the rules that govern trusts. Article 22 then makes the broker liable for losses caused by deception, fraud or a failure to follow the by-law or the Code of Ethics. The by-law itself therefore sets out a broker's liability to the parties, beside the regulator's own powers.

Article 18 closes the loop with the wider law. A broker may not act in a transaction that breaks the laws in force, whatever the client asks for.

Conflicts of interest and the right to a fee

The by-law deals directly with the situations in which a broker's own interest pulls against the client's. Under Article 20, a broker may not become a party to the contract they are arranging unless the other party allows it. Even then, the broker earns no fee for that deal.

Article 23 attaches a financial consequence to divided loyalty. A broker who works for the other side in breach of their duties, or who accepts a benefit from the other side that they were not permitted to take, loses the right to claim a fee or expenses. Articles 24 and 25 deal with groups: brokers engaged jointly are jointly responsible for the work, unless they were authorised to act separately, and several people who jointly engage one broker are jointly responsible to that broker, unless they agree otherwise.

Commission itself is a separate subject. The point that matters here is that, under Article 28, a fee is due only when a contract is actually concluded, and Articles 20 and 23 can remove it altogether when the broker's conduct falls short.

Contracts, advertising and calls in daily practice

Article 26 of the by-law requires the brokerage contract to be in writing, to name the parties, the property and the terms of the brokerage, and to be registered. RERA's practice guide turns that into a working rule: brokers use the Department's smart contracts, Contract A between seller and brokerage, Contract B between buyer and broker, and Contract F between seller and buyer, and record sales electronically through the registration trustee offices. How those contracts work is a subject of its own.

Advertising has its own set of rules. Every property advertisement or piece of marketing material needs a permit obtained through Trakheesi, the Department's licensing system, and the permit number must appear on the advertisement. According to the 2024 practice guide, the rule covers 14 channels, among them newspapers, text messages, outdoor and vehicle advertising, electronic advertisements, billboards and open days. In August 2022, Gulf News reported that the Department required a permit for each listing of a ready property for sale or rent, and the owner's approval before listing.

Unsolicited calls are governed by the green list, a service on the Dubai REST app. The practice guide states that brokers may not contact owners who are not registered on the green list. It adds that a violation is issued, and operations suspended, when an investor or client complains about or reports the broker.

For off-plan sales, the practice guide adds checks the broker makes before marketing: that the project is licensed and registered, that it has an escrow account, and that a marketing contract exists between the developer and the brokerage. Buyers pay only into the project's escrow account.

The published schedule of fines

Schedule 2 of Executive Council Resolution No. 25 of 2009 lists twenty violations across the property sector, fifteen of them aimed at developers, escrow agents and auditors. The last five concern brokerage and licensing, and each carries a fine of AED 50,000.

The resolution adds three rules around the schedule. The fines apply without prejudice to any heavier penalty set by other legislation. Employees of the Land Department and RERA named for the purpose have law enforcement capacity to record these violations and issue violation reports. And the fines collected go to the Public Treasury of the Government of Dubai.

A second text adds a narrower offence. Executive Council Resolution No. 30 of 2013, issued on 18 September 2013, which approved the Land Department's registration fees, provides that a broker or developer who helps someone evade those fees, for example by declaring a false transaction value, faces the same penalty as the person evading them: a fine of double the fee that should have been paid.

How enforcement has looked in practice

Official announcements show how these rules are applied. In October 2020, according to the Dubai Media Office, the Department reported fining 10 real estate companies and warning 30 more for advertising breaches: advertising without a permit, altering or misusing permit numbers, and using expired permits. It described each fine as a progressive AED 50,000 that could escalate to cancellation of the company's licence.

In April 2022, RERA announced that nine brokers had been suspended from practice for three months and that their brokerage office had been fined AED 50,000 for cold calling and direct telemarketing. The announcement said non-compliant companies would face a fine of AED 50,000, a suspension of the broker's card for no less than three months, or both. In August 2022, Gulf News reported a fine of AED 50,000 on an individual broker for promoting a property online without the owner's approval.

The most detailed published round covers the first half of 2024. According to the Dubai Media Office, on 17 July 2024 the Department reported 450 field inspection tours of companies and projects, 1,530 advertisement inspections and more than 1,200 legal warnings, with 256 brokers fined for failing to meet advertising terms and conditions. In that round, legal warnings outnumbered fines by more than four to one.

The disciplinary penalties in the by-law

Fines are only one tool. The by-law gives the committee that oversees the register its own set of penalties for a registered broker. Article 39 lists them, and Article 40 adds cancellation, which is decided by the Director rather than by the committee.

Article 39 lists these penalties without setting an order in which they must be applied, and blacklist points are only one of the grounds for cancellation. The three-month suspensions announced for cold calling in April 2022 sit within the six-month ceiling of Article 39.

Cancellation and the loss of broker status

Under Article 40, the Director cancels a broker's registration, on the committee's recommendation and with reasons stated, in three situations: a breach of the Code of Ethics, a substantial violation of the laws or instructions in force, or the accumulation of three blacklist points. The broker may bring a grievance against the cancellation to the chairman within 15 days, and the chairman's decision on it is final.

Article 41 lists the ways a broker loses brokerage status altogether. They include leaving the business permanently and notifying the Department, being inactive for more than 12 consecutive months without an excuse the committee accepts, no longer meeting the conditions for registration, having given false information when registering, and a cancellation decision under Article 40. Under Article 42, the register division then notifies the competent authorities that the broker's activity has ended or that the registration has been cancelled.

Two of these grounds are worth noting for brokers who are not in trouble at all. A long break from practice can end registration on its own, and so can a change in circumstances that means a registration condition is no longer met.

How a complaint reaches the regulator

The Department runs a service called Complaint Against a Real Estate Company, available on its website and on the Dubai REST app. According to the service page, it lets a customer report real estate violations and cold calls received from brokers and real estate companies. The process has three stages: the customer logs in and chooses the type of complaint, submits the details with supporting documents that show the violation, and the Department follows the complaint up with the company, taking action within 5 business days and replying to the customer by call or text message.

The service has clear limits, and they shape where a dispute ends up.

Cold calls have also had a dedicated route. When it announced the suspensions in April 2022, RERA called on investors, property owners and the public to report unsolicited promotional calls through a Report Malicious Calls service on Dubai REST. For disagreements over a Contract F sale agreement, the practice guide describes a separate path: the parties apply through Trakheesi, the Department holds a meeting to try to reach an amicable settlement, and if none is reached the parties go to the judicial authorities.

Disputes about the brokerage itself

The by-law also provides for disputes about the brokerage relationship, for example over whether a fee is owed. Articles 34 to 38 set up a council of four members, joined by the Department's legal adviser, to hear brokerage disputes. A dispute reaches it only when the brokerage contract contains a clause referring disputes to it, or when the parties agree in writing. Applications go through the committee, and the council has 30 days to decide. It applies the law, unless the parties have authorised it to settle the matter by conciliation.

This route sits beside the disciplinary system rather than inside it. A complaint about conduct asks the regulator to act against a broker; a brokerage dispute asks for a decision between the parties to a contract. The same facts can lead to both, which is why the duties set out in the by-law, from disclosure to the handling of money held in trust, carry weight well beyond the register itself.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →