Property management companies in Dubai: licences, Ejari and Mollak

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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 firm that lets and looks after homes for their owners does a different job from a brokerage, and Dubai licenses it differently. The broker introduces two parties and steps back. The manager stays: it signs or prepares the lease, registers it, collects rent, arranges repairs and answers the tenant for as long as the owner wants. A second kind of manager never meets a tenant at all. It runs the lifts, the lobby, the pool and the budget of a building that many owners share.

The Emirate of Dubai treats the two as separate licensed activities, places them in two separate online systems and governs the second through a law of its own. This guide follows a management company through that framework: the activities on the licence, the conditions and fees the Dubai Land Department publishes, the staff cards, access to the Ejari tenancy system, the registration of management contracts and tenancy contracts, and then the rules of Law No. (6) of 2019 for the companies that manage jointly owned property. It describes the general rules as the official pages give them on 10 October 2026. Where those pages say nothing, the guide says so.

Dubai Land Department licensing and tenancy registration service pages, read on 10 October 2026; Law No. (6) of 2019, Article 34.

Four activities, two kinds of work

The Dubai Land Department, the DLD, lists 21 real estate activities that can be licensed. Four of them concern management. Two are about letting and looking after individual properties: private property leasing and management services, and third-party property leasing and management services. Two are about supervision: administrative supervision services for properties, and administrative supervision services for owners' associations.

The names differ a little from one official page to the next. The DLD's own frequently asked questions call the third-party activity "leasing and management of other people's property" and the supervision activity "real estate management supervision services". They are the same entries under other wording.

The first pair is the business most people mean by property management. The private version is narrow. According to the licensing page, the firm must produce the ownership deed, the property must be held by the licence holder or a partner, and management is limited to the licence holder's own properties and those of second-degree relatives, a limit the page ties to Local Order No. 2 of 2003. It is the licence of a family or a company managing what it owns. The third-party version is the licence for managing on behalf of clients.

The fourth activity belongs to buildings in shared ownership. The licensing page states the condition under the heading of administrative supervision for jointly owned property management companies: the licence and the relevant staff must be registered with the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, RERA, and staff must hold registration cards before they practise.

The two activities without a named fee may fall under the page's general line of AED 5,000 for "other activities". The page does not say so in words, and this guide does not assume it.

What the third-party licence demands

The licensing page sets the same route for every activity. The licence application goes through the Department of Economy and Tourism. The licence is then registered in Trakheesi, the DLD's licensing system, and practice cards are applied for once the licence is approved, where the activity requires them. The DLD gives its own part a processing time of one working day. A company licensed in a free zone must first obtain a no-objection certificate from its licensing authority.

For third-party leasing and management the page adds two conditions that no brokerage activity carries. The first is a bank guarantee of AED 5 million. The second concerns growth: a branch must trade under the same name as the parent licence and must have at least 20 administrative employees.

The guarantee is a condition of entry, not a charge. The page does not say in whose favour it is drawn, how long it must run or in what circumstances it can be called. It does make clear that the sum sits apart from the annual fee, which for this activity is AED 15,000 plus the AED 20 knowledge and innovation fee.

A worked example gives an order of size for the yearly DLD cost of a firm that does both kinds of work. It rests on an assumption the licensing page does not confirm: that a company holding two activities pays the annual fee of each. The other assumptions are one company holding third-party leasing and management and administrative supervision for owners' associations, and eight staff each needing a card at the published card fee described in the next section. The trade licence itself, office costs and the guarantee are left out.

• Third-party leasing and management: AED 15,000 plus AED 20, or AED 15,020.
• Administrative supervision for owners' associations: AED 10,000 plus AED 20, or AED 10,020.
• Eight cards at AED 500: AED 4,000.

On that assumption the total is AED 29,040 a year. It is an illustration built from published amounts, not a figure the DLD publishes. If one annual fee covered both activities, the figure would be lower.

Cards for the people who do the work

A licence authorises the company. The DLD's practice card page states that no one may practise a licensed activity before registering and obtaining the card for that activity. It lists 13 card types, and two of them are for managers: "private real estate management" and "real estate management".

The two official pages do not sit neatly together on the private activity. The licensing page lists private property leasing and management among five activities that need no practice card. The card page nonetheless offers a private real estate management card. Neither page explains the difference.

For the real estate management card the published conditions are the general ones. The applicant uploads a personal photo and a copy of the Emirates ID and must hold a certificate of good conduct from Dubai Police. The fee is AED 500. The card is issued as an e-card through Trakheesi, in a stated five minutes once the conditions are met, and it is valid only while the trade licence it is linked to is valid.

What the page does not contain matters as much. It ties its exam fee to the broker card, and it lists no course, no exam and no minimum experience for either management card. Whether RERA requires training of management staff by another route is not stated on the pages read for this guide. The only reference found is in the DLD's frequently asked questions, which say that editing a management contract "requires Ejari training", without describing that training.

There is also no card on the list named for owners' association work, although the licensing page requires staff of jointly owned property management companies to hold registration cards. The frequently asked questions indicate where that registration happens: Mollak, the system described further on, registers management companies and their employees.

Getting into Ejari

Ejari is the DLD's system for registering tenancy contracts. A management company cannot do its job without it, and access depends on the licence.

The DLD's page on registering an Ejari user says that, for real estate lease and management companies, the right to use the system is awarded directly when the licence is issued, and it lists no document to upload. The frequently asked questions add the detail: a company gains access after registering in Trakheesi one of two activities, leasing and management of other people's property or real estate management supervision services, and the administrator's username is generated automatically.

Three points follow from those pages.

• One administrator, several sub-users. A management company has one admin user and may have multiple sub-users. The service page calls the first a master user and makes it a condition whenever the lessor is a company.
• No charge for access. User registration is described as a free service with immediate processing.
• Other businesses register differently. Business centres, shopping centres and commercial complexes register with their licence number and a UAE ID number. The frequently asked questions set separate conditions for business centres, among them an area of 5,000 square feet or more, units of at least 100 square feet and a five-year lease held by the owner.

Sub-leasing is a separate matter. According to the frequently asked questions, a management company can create sub-lease contracts only if its licence includes leasing and sub-leasing, and a facility management company is not allowed to sub-lease a property.

Registering the management contract

Before a manager can register a single lease on a property, the system has to know that it manages that property. The proof is the management contract between the owner and the company, registered in Ejari.

The DLD's service page for registering and renewing a management contract sets three conditions. The company must hold a licence for a real estate activity related to property tenancy. The applicant must be the owner, or the owner's representative under an official power of attorney or a signed management contract. And the company must have a user authorised to use the system. The one document required is a copy of the management contract signed by the owner and the company. The service is free, takes about ten minutes according to the page, and ends with an email confirming the registered contract.

The frequently asked questions describe the order in which the system expects things to happen.

The frequently asked questions name the first submission a "New IM" without spelling out the abbreviation. They say each step should follow promptly once the previous one is approved.

For an owner, the consequence is practical. A manager who has signed a mandate but not registered it cannot yet register that owner's leases, and the service page gives no validity period for a registered management contract. Renewal has a limit of its own: according to the frequently asked questions, only pending or rejected contracts can be updated during renewal.

Registering tenancy contracts as the manager

Dubai's tenancy law makes registration more than a formality. Law No. (26) of 2007 regulating the relationship between landlords and tenants, issued on 26 November 2007, requires in Article 4 a written lease contract signed by both parties, and provides that lease contracts are registered with RERA. Under the same article, courts and government bodies may not hear a dispute or take action on a lease contract that has not been registered. The article does not name the party who must register.

A manager fits into that law through a definition. Article 2 defines the landlord as the person entitled by law or agreement to dispose of the property, and includes "an agent or legal representative of the Landlord". The duties the law places on a landlord are therefore the ones a manager carries out in practice: under Article 16, maintaining the property and repairing defects that affect the tenant's use unless the parties agree otherwise; under Article 20, refunding the security deposit or what remains of it when the lease ends; under Article 34, not disconnecting services.

The DLD's tenancy registration page shows how the channels divide. Registration through the Ejari system is open to companies licensed for one of the property management activities, to individual owners who manage their own property, and to representatives holding a legal power of attorney. The mobile route requires both tenant and landlord to be individuals. The Real Estate Services Trustee Centres are for properties that are not managed by a real estate company or by an owner with Ejari access; the page's own procedure tells a customer whose property is managed to go to the management company. In effect, once a property is under a registered management contract, its leases are registered by the manager.

The page does not say who bears the fee, and the frequently asked questions describe responsibility for registration as shared between tenant and landlord. As a worked example, assume a management company registers 120 tenancy contracts in a year through the online channel at the published total. The cost is 120 times AED 177.75, which is AED 21,330. Who finally pays it is a matter for the lease and for the management contract. The output in every channel is an e-contract registration certificate.

Moving or ending a management contract

Owners change managers, and the system has a rule for it. The frequently asked questions put it in one sentence: management contracts cannot be transferred. To move a property from one company to another, the contract with the first company is cancelled and a new one is created with the second.

The DLD's cancellation service is free and described as immediate. It carries the same three conditions as registration and ends with an email confirming the cancellation. The frequently asked questions add the controls behind it. The company submits the request and rental auditors approve or reject it. Cancellations are limited to two in 365 days; beyond that, the request is sent by email with a letter from the owner or the management company explaining the reasons.

The owner has a route too. An individual owner can terminate a management contract through Dubai REST, the DLD's application. An owner that is a company must go through the management company or cancel through the Ejari system.

Jointly owned property: who may manage

The second kind of management is governed by Law No. (6) of 2019 concerning ownership of jointly owned real property in the Emirate of Dubai. Its Article 2 defines a management company as a sole proprietorship or company recognised by RERA and specialised in this work, and it uses a wider term, management entity, that also covers developers and hotel project management companies.

Which of them manages a given building depends on the three categories of Article 18: major projects, managed by the developer; hotel projects, where the developer must outsource the common parts to a hotel project management company; and all other projects, where a specialised management company is selected and contracted by RERA. For a management company, the article opens four ways into the work.

• By appointment in the third category. RERA selects the company and contracts with it, under rules approved by a resolution of the DLD's Director General.
• By outsourcing from a developer. Under Article 18(c), the developer of a major project may outsource all or part of its duties to a management company for agreed fees, and RERA must approve the agreement.
• Where there is no developer. Under Article 18(d), RERA appoints a management company for a major or hotel project that has no developer.
• In a master community. Under Article 19, the master developer must outsource the management of the common facilities to a management company, under a written agreement approved in advance by RERA.

In every case the regulator stands between the company and the mandate. A management company in this field does not win a building from its owners by private contract alone.

The system for this work is not Ejari. According to the frequently asked questions, jointly owned property management companies register through Mollak, choosing the registration for administrative supervision services for jointly owned properties and completing an online form. Mollak registers management companies, their employees and their management contracts, along with auditors, banks and the complexes themselves. Through it a company requests the regulatory bank account for a complex, requests approval of service charges and issues the invoices to owners.

What the law asks of the management company

Law No. (6) of 2019 spreads the duties of a management entity over several articles. Read from the company's side, they form a working checklist.

Money. Article 27 bars any charge or collection without RERA's prior approval. Article 30 requires a separate account for each property at a bank licensed in Dubai and recognised by RERA, with collected charges deposited within seven working days. The same article lists what the account may pay for, and the management company's own fees are on that list.

Contracts and reporting. Under Article 34 the management entity contracts with the maintenance, security, cleaning and insurance firms it needs, and produces a periodic report on management and works every six months. Under Article 33 RERA may inspect the property, serve notices with time limits, and audit both the accounts and the management entity's contracts with its service providers.

Insurance. Article 41 requires the management entity to insure the property for reconstruction after fire, damage or destruction, with itself as beneficiary, and to insure against liability for bodily injury and damage to occupants or third parties. The premiums are part of the service charges.

A guarantee. Under Article 36 the management entity provides a bank guarantee in favour of the DLD to cover damage caused by its negligence or omission. If it does not remedy the damage in time, RERA may appoint another entity and deduct the cost from the guarantee. The law's English text does not state an amount, and the pages read do not say how this guarantee relates to the AED 5 million asked for the third-party leasing licence.

Repairs. Under Article 35, where maintenance falls short, RERA serves a written notice. If the management entity does not act, RERA appoints another entity and charges the cost to the relevant account.

The owners committee and replacement

The management company works under the eye of an owners committee of up to nine members appointed by RERA. The company has duties toward it: under Article 23 the management entity provides the venue for the committee's meetings, held every three months, and appoints the rapporteur who writes the minutes. Under Article 24 the committee passes owners' complaints to the management entity and takes them to RERA if they are not resolved within 14 days.

The committee's strongest power concerns the third category. Article 24 allows it to ask RERA to replace the management company and to advise on a successor. Article 38 then sets the sequence RERA follows.

1. RERA notifies the owners committee.
2. It issues a written warning to the company, which has 14 days to respond.
3. A certified audit firm audits the service charges account.
4. The company is allowed 30 days for the handover.

For major and hotel projects the route is Article 37: where a developer or hotel project management company is proven incompetent, a specialised company may be appointed in its place.

The DLD's list of rules and regulations shows a circular on the same subject, Circular No. 4 of 2020 on the procedures for requesting a change of management companies for jointly owned properties in the third category, dated 6 December 2020. The list also carries Circular No. 2 of 2019 regarding real estate management companies and Circular 11 of 2015 for real estate management supervision companies. Their texts were not opened for this guide, and their detail is not described here.

Management contracts cannot be transferred from one company to another, the Dubai Land Department's frequently asked questions say: the old one is cancelled and a new one is created.

Penalties and where disputes go

For jointly owned property, Article 44 of Law No. (6) of 2019 provides for fines on anyone who violates the law or the resolutions issued under it. The acts that count as violations and the fine for each are set by a resolution of the Chairman of the Executive Council. The fine is doubled when the same violation is repeated within one year, and the English text on the Dubai Legislation Portal, re-read on 10 October 2026, says a fine "must not exceed two million Dirhams (AED 2,000,000.00)". The article also states an amount for a single fine; it could not be read with enough certainty for this guide and is not quoted here. A person penalised may file a written grievance with the Director General within 30 days of notice under Article 46, and the grievance is decided within 30 days.

Disputes under the law go to the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre, which Article 42 gives exclusive jurisdiction. Owners with a complaint about a management company are directed by the frequently asked questions to Dubai REST, where it is filed in the Real Estate Violations System.

On the leasing side, the pages read for this guide publish no schedule of fines for a management company. The consequences they do state are of another kind. A person cannot practise a licensed activity without the card. A company without the licensed activity has no access to Ejari. And under Article 4 of Law No. (26) of 2007, an unregistered lease cannot be relied on before the courts or government bodies. A separate schedule of fines may exist in resolutions that were not read; none is quoted here.

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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