What happens to a Dubai property when a foreign owner dies?

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Kooky

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A title deed in Dubai names an owner, and the register does not change by itself on the day that owner dies. Somebody has to bring the Dubai Land Department a court paper saying who inherits, and what that paper says depends on three things: the owner's religion, whether a will was registered, and which law governs the estate. For a foreign owner who lives in another country, or who lives in Dubai with a family that expects the rules of home to apply, none of the three is obvious.

This guide covers the position of non-Muslim owners, because that is the group the two main texts address: Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022 on civil personal status, which sets default shares for the United Arab Emirates as a whole, and Dubai's Law No. 15 of 2017, which governs the estates and wills of non-Muslims in the emirate. It then follows the paper trail: the wills that can be registered and what the DIFC Courts publish as fees, the court order, and the Dubai Land Department service that puts the heirs' names on the title. Inheritance for Muslim owners follows other legislation and is outside this guide.

Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022, Article 11; DIFC Courts fee page; Dubai Land Department service page, as read on 10 October 2026.

Two laws apply to one estate

The federal text is Federal Decree-Law No. 41 Concerning Civil Personal Status. The Ministry of Justice's English version gives its date of issue as 3 October 2022, and Article 18 brought it into force on 1 February 2023. Article 1 says it applies to events that take place after that date. It deals with marriage, divorce, inheritance, wills and proof of parentage for non-Muslims, and its inheritance rules sit in Articles 11 to 13.

The Dubai text is Law No. 15 of 2017 Concerning Administration of Estates and Implementation of Wills of Non-Muslims in the Emirate of Dubai, issued by the Ruler of Dubai on 18 October 2017. Article 3 applies it to all wills and estates of non-Muslims in the emirate, and says expressly that this includes the Dubai International Financial Centre. Where the federal decree-law says who inherits, the Dubai law says how an estate is run: who may register a will, who carries it out, what is paid first, how long an inventory may take, and which court gives the order that transfers ownership.

Who the federal default rules cover

Article 1 of the federal decree-law names two groups: non-Muslim citizens of the United Arab Emirates, and non-Muslim foreigners residing in the State. For both, the decree-law applies "unless one of them adheres to the application of their law" in the fields it covers, inheritance and wills included. The same article lets the people it covers agree to apply other family or personal status legislation in force in the State instead.

Two points follow for a foreign property owner. First, the text speaks of foreigners residing in the State. The English version read for this guide does not say, in Article 1, how the decree-law treats a non-Muslim owner who holds a Dubai apartment and lives abroad. For that owner, the DIFC Courts' own guidance gives the general position: where there is no will, "the laws of the local courts" of the emirate where the assets are located apply by default. Second, the decree-law is a default. It gives way to a registered will, and Article 11(3) allows an heir to request another applicable law, on the terms described below.

The shares when there is no will

Article 11(2) of the federal decree-law sets out what happens to a non-Muslim's estate when no will exists. Half of the estate goes to the husband or wife. The other half is divided equally among the children, and the text says so in terms: there is no difference between male and female.

Where there are no children, the article turns to the parents and then to the siblings. The table follows the article as the Ministry of Justice's English text gives it.

A worked example shows the first row. Assume a non-Muslim owner dies with no will, leaving a spouse, two children and one apartment in Dubai, and assume the estate is worth AED 2,000,000 after everything that ranks before the heirs has been paid. The figures are illustrative. The spouse's half is AED 1,000,000. The other AED 1,000,000 is shared equally by the two children, AED 500,000 each.

In a property, a share is a share of ownership, not a sum of money. On these assumptions the title would carry three names after the transfer: the spouse for half, each child for a quarter. Whether the heirs then keep the apartment together or sell it is a separate decision, which this guide does not cover.

The order of payments comes from the Dubai law, not the federal one. Article 5 of Law No. 15 of 2017 says that before anything is distributed, four things are settled in this order: funeral expenses, the costs of administering the estate and carrying out the will, the remuneration of the executor and the administrator, and the debts of the estate. The heirs share what is left.

A will overrides the default

Article 11(1) of the federal decree-law gives a non-Muslim the right to leave, by will, "the entire amount of money they own in the State for whoever they want", subject to controls set in the decree-law's Implementing Regulation. The regulation was not among the texts read for this guide, so its controls are not described here.

The Dubai law says the same thing from the other side. Under Article 5 of Law No. 15 of 2017, a will takes precedence over the rules that apply without one. The half-and-half split of Article 11(2) is therefore what the law supplies when the owner said nothing.

The federal decree-law also provides for a register of its own. Article 13 says wills are recorded in a register under procedures set by the Implementing Regulation, and adds that spouses may fill out a will registration form when they sign their marriage contract. Article 12 leaves inheritance procedures to the Council of Ministers.

Which law applies, and what Dubai's law says on real property

The question of which law applies arises in two places in the federal decree-law. Article 1 lets a person it covers hold to "their law" in place of the decree-law. Article 11(3) concerns the heirs: any heir of a foreigner may ask for the law applicable to the estate under the Civil Transactions Law to be applied, unless a registered will says otherwise. The Civil Transactions Law is Federal Law No. 5 of 1985. The decree-law refers to it without restating its rules, and they were not read for this guide, so which country's law they point to in a given case is not stated here.

The wording carries two elements. The request may be made by any heir of a foreigner. And the article applies "unless there is a registered will to the contrary". How a court handles such a request is not described in the texts read.

Dubai's law has its own rule on the applicable law. Article 4 of Law No. 15 of 2017 starts from the choice-of-law rules in force, then lists the cases in which the law of the United Arab Emirates applies regardless. The first of them is an estate or a will that relates to real property located in the emirate. The others are the question of whether an asset counts as real or movable property, public order, and a testator who chooses UAE law. For a person with more than one nationality, the same article takes the nationality stated when the will was registered, and failing that the law of the country of residence or business.

What Dubai's Law No. 15 of 2017 sets up

The law's definitions fix the vocabulary used in every later step. An estate is all the property and the real and moral rights of a deceased person. The law also defines the will, the executor, the administrator and the register. The "Competent Court" is the Dubai Courts or the DIFC Courts, as the case may be.

Article 6 creates a Register of Wills of non-Muslims at both of those courts. That is why two registers exist in one emirate. Article 29 ties jurisdiction to the register: a dispute goes to the Dubai Courts or to the DIFC Courts according to where the will is registered. Article 32 gives each court its own fee-setting authority, the Chairman of the Executive Council for the Dubai Courts and the Chairman of the DIFC for the DIFC Courts.

Registration has weight. Under Article 18, a registered will is carried out by a written order of the court, while an unregistered one needs a judgment, obtained on a written application. Under Article 11, a registered will prevails over an unregistered one. If several wills are registered, the first registered prevails. If none is registered, they are read together as one will and the court resolves any conflict between them.

Only the DIFC Courts' published pages were read for the practical side of registration. The Dubai Courts' own register, its procedure and its fees are not described in this guide.

What makes a will registrable

Article 8 of Law No. 15 of 2017 lists six requirements for registration. The testator is non-Muslim. The will meets the validity conditions of Article 9. It names an executor and says how the property is to be disposed of. The testator signs it, or affixes a seal or fingerprint, in the presence of two witnesses. The text has not been altered by deletion or insertion. The prescribed fees are paid.

Article 9 sets the validity conditions. The testator must have full capacity, and the article lists further conditions that are not detailed here. Where a condition in a will is void, Article 9 leaves the rest of the will valid.

On the testator's age the two sources read for this guide differ. Article 9 of the Dubai law requires the testator to be at least 21. The DIFC Courts' frequently asked questions on wills say a person must be non-Muslim, must never have been Muslim, and must be at least 18. The guide records both figures as each source gives them.

A will does not last for ever by default. Article 10 lists the events that make one lapse, and one of them is directly relevant to property: the transfer of the property concerned. Others are a registered revocation, a later registered will that conflicts with it, and the death of the beneficiary where no alternative was named. A beneficiary also has a choice. Article 12 gives 60 days from notification of the will to accept or renounce.

The DIFC Courts wills: what each covers and costs

The DIFC Courts Wills Service registers six forms of will. Its guidance says a testator needs UAE assets, minor children residing in the United Arab Emirates, or both, and that neither UAE residency nor a UAE visa is required: registration can be done by video from anywhere. Two are of direct interest to a property owner.

The Property Will covers real estate only. According to the Wills Service, it can include up to five properties, or shares in up to five properties, located in the UAE, free zone properties included. It is built on a template, completed through the service's online portal. Off-plan property can go into it only with an Oqood certificate. It covers the listed properties only.

The Full Will covers movable and immovable property in the UAE, including property acquired after signing, and does not require proof of ownership at registration.

The fee page prices "mirror" wills as a pair. The difference can be computed from the table: two single Property Wills would cost AED 15,000, the mirror pair costs AED 10,000, a difference of AED 5,000. For Full Wills, two singles come to AED 20,000 against AED 15,000 for the pair. The fee page says the booking fee is kept if an appointment is cancelled, rescheduled more than three times, or moved to a date more than 90 days after the original. The Wills Service states that its fees are not subject to the 5 per cent value added tax.

Signing takes about 20 minutes, in person or online, in front of two witnesses aged at least 18. A witness cannot be a beneficiary or a guardian named in the will, or the spouse of one. Registration is electronic. The service does not accept codicils; the fee page lists a will modification fee of AED 550. Two life events alter a registered will under the service's rules. Marriage revokes it unless the intention is stated in the will, and after a divorce a gift to the former spouse is treated as if that spouse had died.

From the death to the court order

Where there is a registered DIFC Courts will, the executor starts the process by emailing the probate registry with the death certificate. The Wills Service says a grant is normally issued within "a matter of a few weeks", and gives the fee for a grant of probate as US$1,500, a fixed amount. The fee page publishes a rate of US$1 to AED 3.6725. Converted at that rate, as a computation made for this guide and not a figure the page prints, the fee is AED 5,508.75.

One further step is specific to Dubai. According to the Wills Service, every DIFC Courts order, probate orders included, requires execution at the Dubai Courts "as a standard formality", a route it says has been used for more than 100 orders.

Where there is no will, Law No. 15 of 2017 puts the estate in the hands of an administrator. Article 21 says the estate passes to the heirs under the law and the court's rules, and then freezes it: until an administrator has been appointed by judgment or order, nothing may be disposed of except funeral costs and the necessary expenses of family members who depended on the deceased.

The administrator's timetable is written into the law. Creditors have 90 days to claim. The inventory of the estate is due within 6 months of the judgment that opened the administration, a period the court may extend. An objection to the inventory may be made within 90 days. Every 3 months the administrator reports on the accounts. An executor carrying out a will works under a 90-day creditor rule as well: under Article 15, creditors are invited through two local daily newspapers, one of them in English.

Distribution is ordered by the court under Article 27. Article 20 then makes the link with the land register: ownership passes to a beneficiary by order or judgment of the Competent Court. If nobody inherits at all, Article 28 sends the estate to the Public Treasury of the Government of Dubai, subject to the treaties the UAE has joined.

How the Land Department transfers the title

The Dubai Land Department calls the service Inheritance Title Transfer. The documents it asks for show that the department acts on what a court or Awqaf sends; the service page does not describe it as deciding who inherits.

The page lists five documents. The first is the legal notification of inheritance. The second is a copy of the Emirates ID of every heir who is a citizen or resident, and the third a valid passport copy for each heir who is not resident. The fourth applies only to some properties: a no-objection letter from the mortgagee or from the developer. The fifth is an official letter addressed to the Dubai Land Department, from the Dubai Courts, another UAE court or Awqaf, asking for ownership to be transferred to the heirs.

The department gives a service time of 8 working hours. That is the time for its own step, once the file is complete, and says nothing of the time the court stage may take under the deadlines above.

The fee is where an inheritance differs most from a sale. The service page lists AED 1,000 per property, collected from the heirs, and no fee calculated as a percentage of the property's value. The other lines are document fees: AED 250 for a title deed, AED 250 for an apartment map or a villa map, AED 225 for a land map under the unified map with Dubai Municipality, AED 100 for a land plot map outside the municipality's jurisdiction, AED 20 per drawing as a knowledge and innovation fee, and AED 130 plus value added tax as service partner fees. The page does not say which lines apply in which case.

A worked example, on assumptions made for this guide, since the page does not say which lines apply to a given case: one apartment, one title deed, one apartment map counted as one drawing, and a transfer handled through a service partner. The lines are AED 1,000, AED 250, AED 250, AED 20 and AED 130, which total AED 1,650 before the tax on the partner's fee. The amount does not change with the value of the apartment, and on the page's wording the AED 1,000 is charged once per property, however many heirs go onto the title.

Jointly held property

A home bought by two people raises a question: does the survivor take the whole? None of the pages read for this guide says so. Neither the federal decree-law nor Law No. 15 of 2017, in the articles read, contains a rule passing a co-owner's share to the surviving co-owner, and the Dubai Land Department's inheritance service page makes no mention of joint owners.

What the sources do show is that a share is treated as an asset of its owner. The DIFC Courts' Property Will can cover "shares in" up to five properties, which presupposes that a co-owner's share is something a will disposes of. Asked about shared property, the Wills Service answers only that any qualifying individual may register a will, and advises legal advice. Its Financial Assets Will treats bank accounts the same way: it can list up to ten accounts held at a UAE branch in sole or joint name.

The example that follows rests on an assumption that no page read states in terms: that a deceased co-owner's share falls into the estate and follows the default rules of Article 11(2), under which the spouse receives half and the children the other half. On that assumption only: a couple hold an apartment in equal shares, one dies with no will, and they have two children. The survivor keeps the half already owned. The deceased's half is split in two, a quarter of the whole apartment to the survivor and a quarter to the children, an eighth each. The survivor ends with three quarters, not the whole. A registered will is the instrument the two laws provide for a different result.

A Dubai title passes on a court's order, and the court reads the will first. The default shares are what remains when no will was registered.

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.

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