Dubai property fraud: official checks, Ejari and where to complain

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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 flat advertised well under the going rent, a person who says they are the landlord, and a request for a deposit before anyone has seen the keys: that is the pattern Dubai Police described in a public warning reported by Gulf News in an article last updated on 2 March 2026. In the cases described in that report, payment is requested before the property has been viewed or an official contract signed.

This guide looks at the same sequence from the other end. It sets out what the police warning says as the newspaper reported it, then what the Dubai Land Department, the DLD, publishes about the official steps of a tenancy and of a sale: who is allowed to register a tenancy contract, what that registration costs and produces, where a sale is registered and what is checked there, and what the Department's application shows about brokers, offices and off-plan projects. It then covers the complaint routes, which are split between three bodies, and the fees of the Rental Disputes Center. Apart from the police warning, which is taken from a newspaper report and not from the police website, everything here is a service of the Emirate of Dubai, described as the official pages describe it. Where the guide draws its own inference from those pages, it says so. How it applies to one deal depends on that deal, and the last section lists what the pages read do not say.

Dubai Land Department service pages for tenancy registration, complaints against a real estate company and amicable settlement of rental disputes, read on 10 October 2026.

What the police warning describes

According to the Gulf News report, the warning came from the Anti-Fraud Centre of Dubai Police, which sits in the force's General Department of Criminal Investigation, and it was issued as part of a campaign named "Be Aware of Fraud". It concerns rental advertisements that circulate on social media and on online platforms.

The method has four parts in the report. First, the offer: homes in prime locations advertised at rents far below market rates. According to the report, these adverts are aimed at people who need housing urgently or who have a limited budget. Second, the borrowed property: the people behind the adverts use photographs taken from legitimate listings, or advertise units they do not own. Third, the false identity: they sometimes pose as the landlord, or claim to act for a real estate agency that does not exist. Fourth, the paper: they may hand over forged contracts or falsified documents.

Then comes the payment. In the report, people who respond are asked to pay upfront, and the payment is given a reassuring name: a booking deposit, a documentation fee, a goodwill payment. The request comes before the property has been viewed or an official contract signed.

The guidance attached to the warning is short. As reported, the police ask residents to stay vigilant and, when renting, to deal only with authorised entities and with verified property owners. The report names no official, and it gives no figures on losses or on the number of cases, so none are given here.

The two phrases in that guidance, authorised entities and verified owners, are the thread of the rest of this guide. The official pages described below do not refer to the police warning. Setting them beside it is this guide's own reading: each page describes a step at which a company's authorisation or a person's ownership is examined by a public body or a trustee centre.

Who is behind the advert: the directories in Dubai REST

The first question is whether the firm or person named in an advert is known to the regulator. The DLD's page on Dubai REST, which it calls "the smart real estate platform for real estate services", lists the directory information the application holds. There are four groups:

• real estate brokers, shown with their performance levels;
• real estate offices, shown with their classifications;
• valuation, management and consultancy companies;
• certified developers.

The application is offered in Arabic and English on the Android and Apple stores, and the page names its intended users widely: owners, tenants, brokers, developers, valuers, investors and all market beneficiaries. Tenants are therefore among the users the page names.

On this guide's reading, these directories are where the phrase "authorised entities" in the reported guidance can be compared with a record: the page lists offices, brokers and management companies as directory information. The page does not say how complete each directory is or what a search returns when a name is missing, so the guide draws no conclusion from an absence; that question is the regulator's to answer.

The same page lists other functions that matter later in this guide: the registration, renewal and cancellation of a lease, the filing and follow-up of a rental dispute case, and a rental index and a sale index. The page does not describe how a user logs in.

The registered tenancy contract and who may register it

A Dubai tenancy is recorded through the DLD's service named Register / Renew Tenancy Contract, known by the name of its system, Ejari. The service page describes it as the way to register or renew a tenancy contract in the emirate, on the standard lease contract. What matters for this guide is the page's list of who may use each channel: each channel's conditions refer to the owner, the owner's representative or a licensed manager.

At a Real Estate Trustee Center, the applicant must be the tenant, or a legal representative holding an official power of attorney. The landlord must be the owner of the property, or a legal representative with a power of attorney. This channel is closed when the property is managed by a real estate company, or by an owner who has Ejari access; for a managed property, the page's steps send the applicant to the property management company.

In the mobile application, the tenant and the landlord must both be individuals, and the owner's data must be up to date.

In the Ejari system itself, three kinds of user are admitted. A company must hold a licence for a property management activity. An individual owner must own the property and manage it personally. A representative of an individual owner must hold a legal power of attorney that authorises the management of the properties.

Set those conditions beside the reported warning. What follows is this guide's reading, not a statement by the Department. One case in the report is an advert for a unit the advertiser does not own. A person who is not the owner, holds no power of attorney from the owner and is not a licensed property manager meets none of the conditions the service page lists for the landlord side. The page does not describe how those conditions are verified.

The documents are few. Through the application, the page asks for a copy of the Unified Tenancy Contract. At a trustee centre it asks for the original Unified Tenancy Contract and the applicant's Emirates ID. When a representative applies, the power of attorney is needed: if it was issued in Dubai its number can be entered without attaching the document, and if it was issued in another emirate the document itself must be attached.

What registration costs and produces

The fee depends on the channel. The table gives each line as the DLD's page publishes it.

The online total can be rebuilt from its lines: 100, 10, 10, 55 and 2.75 add up to AED 177.75. The trustee centre total cannot be rebuilt in the same way. Its four published lines add up to AED 215 before VAT, and the page states a total of AED 220 without showing the tax line. The difference between the two channels, on the stated totals, is AED 42.25.

These amounts are the published cost of registering the contract. The "documentation fees" mentioned in the reported warning carry no figure, so no comparison is made here. The page does not say which side pays the registration fee, so that point is left to the contract.

The procedure has five steps in each channel. At a trustee centre: the applicant goes to the nearest centre, or to the property management company if one manages the property; submits the documents; an employee reviews and approves the request in the system; the fee is paid and a receipt collected; the certificate is received. The page gives 25 minutes for this, not counting waiting time. In the Ejari system or the application the order changes slightly: log in and choose the service, enter the information and upload the documents, pay, wait for an employee to review and approve, and receive the certificate by email. No time is given for the online route. Payment is by credit card, cash or the Noqodi wallet.

The output is called the e-Contract Registration Certificate. It is the document the page names as the result of registration. The page does not state how long the certificate is valid, and it cites no law, so no deadline for registering is given here.

A sale: what the trustee centre checks

For a purchase of a completed property, the equivalent step is the DLD's Property Sale Registration service. The page describes it as the registration of a sale, full or partial, between the seller and the buyer or their legally authorised representatives, covering land, property or a completed unit. Its only channel is the Real Estate Registration Trustees Center, and its stated processing time is 25 minutes.

Two documents are listed. The first is the Emirates ID of both the seller and the buyer, which the page says is used for identity verification only, with no copies taken; a non-resident foreigner shows a valid passport. The second, for freehold areas, is a no-objection e-certificate from the developer, the e-NOC, obtained through Dubai REST. A company must first be registered through a separate company registration request.

On this guide's reading, this is the step at which a seller's identity is examined by a third party: the page has the Emirates ID or passport checked at the centre, requires the developer's e-NOC in freehold areas, and names an Electronic Title Deed and an Electronic Map as the documents issued. The page does not describe any check that takes place before the parties reach the centre.

The page also publishes the fees. Its two main lines read "Seller: 2% of the sale value" and "Buyer: 2% of the sale value", as the DLD's Property Sale Registration page showed them when re-read on 10 October 2026. The page gives those two lines without a legal reference and does not say whether the parties may arrange the split differently between themselves. The additional lines are AED 250 for the title deed certificate, AED 225 for a unified map under Dubai Municipality or AED 100 for a map of land not under the municipality, AED 250 on a line headed villas and apartments that the page does not explain, and AED 10 each for the knowledge and innovation fees. The service partner fee is AED 4,000 plus VAT when the sale value is AED 500,000 or more, and AED 2,000 plus VAT below that.

A worked example, with illustrative figures: assume a completed apartment sold for AED 1,500,000. The 2% line listed for the buyer is AED 30,000 and the 2% line listed for the seller is AED 30,000. Because the value is above AED 500,000, the service partner fee is AED 4,000 plus VAT. For a second illustrative sale at AED 450,000, each 2% line is AED 9,000 and the partner fee is AED 2,000 plus VAT. The page does not say who pays the additional lines or the partner fee.

One point needs care. The page lists four payment methods for this service: ePay, Dubai Pay, the Noqodi wallet and a manager's cheque. It names them as ways of paying the service's fees and gives no payee and no purpose for the cheque. It does not set out how the purchase price itself passes from buyer to seller, and this guide does not state a rule on that.

Off-plan: the project and its escrow account number

For a home sold before completion, the pages read for this guide point to a different source. The Dubai REST page says that for off-plan projects the application shows three things: the percentage of completion, actual pictures of the project, and the escrow account number. It also shows the payments due from owners in the projects they have invested in. Certified developers are one of the four directory groups mentioned earlier.

For this guide's subject the escrow account number is the relevant item. The following is the guide's reading, not a procedure the page sets out: because the application shows the project's escrow account number and the payments due, both are available for comparison with the account and the amount named in a payment request.

The page read for this guide does not explain the law behind escrow accounts or what happens when a payment goes elsewhere, and those questions are not answered here.

Complaints about a broker or an advert

When something looks wrong with a company's conduct or with an advertisement, the DLD has a service named Complaint Against a Real Estate Company. Its page says customers can report three things: violations of real estate activities, violating advertisements, and cold calls from brokers and real estate companies. The stated aim is to control violations and negative practices and to protect the rights of all parties. It is open whatever the complainant's residency status, and the page lists no fee.

The procedure has three steps, on the Department's website or in Dubai REST:

1. log in and select the type of complaint;
2. enter the required data, attach the supporting documents and submit;
3. the Department follows up with the real estate company and takes action within 5 business days, and the customer is reached by call or SMS.

The supporting documents are whatever proves the violation: the page asks for documents that show the breach of real estate activities, the violating advertisement or the negative practice. The page does not list examples. The outcome is a notice sent by SMS and email.

The page also states the limits of the service.

The six-month limit is a time condition. Under the page's wording, a dispute or complaint relating to a contract concluded more than six months earlier is not considered.

The page cites no law and lists no fine or sanction, so the consequences for a company found in breach are not described here. It names the Department of Economy and Tourism, DET, as a partner of the service without saying what part it plays.

Rent disputes: the Rental Disputes Center

A rental complaint is outside the complaint service, as its page says. The route it names is the Rental Disputes Center, and the DLD publishes its conciliation service under the name Dispute Lawsuit (for Amicable Settlement). The page describes a way for landlords and tenants to settle outside litigation. If the two sides agree, they sign the conciliation with the conciliator, a supervising judge approves it, and the centre can enforce it.

The first document on the page's list is the latest lease, with Ejari. The registered lease described earlier is therefore the first item of the file. The other documents depend on the claim. They include the Emirates ID of an individual, with a company acting through the manager named in its commercial licence; a bank letter or statement showing the claimant's IBAN for a monetary claim; for an eviction claim, a notarised notice with the notification officer's report, or registered post with acknowledgment; and supporting material such as correspondence, notices, utility bills and cheques. All documents must be in Arabic or legally translated into Arabic, and they are uploaded to the centre's portal. The page says no hard copies are accepted.

Three worked examples, all with illustrative figures, show how the percentage and its limits interact. A tenant claims the return of a security deposit of AED 5,000 as a monetary claim: 3.5% of AED 5,000 is AED 175, which is below the minimum, so the fee is AED 500. A rent claim on a lease with an annual rent of AED 80,000 gives 3.5% of AED 80,000, or AED 2,800, which sits between the two limits. A claim on a lease with an annual rent of AED 600,000 gives AED 21,000, which is above the maximum, so the fee is AED 20,000.

Settlement has a price advantage written into the page: half of the court fee paid for basic claims is refunded if the parties reach a settlement. In the second example, half of AED 2,800 is AED 1,400.

The page gives 10 minutes for registering the case and 7 business days as the service duration. The channels are the Department's website and the Real Estate Services Trustees Centers, and payment is by debit or credit card. On the website, the claimant logs in to the centre's system, uploads the documents, pays, attends the conciliation session through the tele-litigation system, and then signs and receives the agreement, or waives the claim, online. The result is one of two documents: a conciliation agreement or a claim waiver.

Reporting a suspected fraud to the police

A fake advert is a different matter from a dispute with a real landlord. The Gulf News report of the police warning names three channels for reporting suspected fraud: the Dubai Police smart application, the force's e-Crime platform, and the police call line.

With the two DLD routes, the sources read name three destinations. Suspected fraud is reported to Dubai Police, according to the press report. Violations of real estate activities, violating advertisements and cold calls are reported through the Land Department's complaint service, within the limits its page states. A rental dispute between a landlord and a tenant goes to the Rental Disputes Center. None of the sources says how a matter that falls under more than one heading is handled.

What the pages read do not say

Several points a reader might expect are absent from the pages read for this guide, and they are left open.

The Dubai REST page does not name a title deed verification function, a broker card check, a check of an advertisement's permit or QR code, or a way to report unwanted calls. Other DLD pages may describe such services; they were not read for this guide and nothing is stated about them.

No page read sets out how the price of a sale must be paid, or to whom. The manager's cheque on the sale registration page is listed as a payment method for that service's fees, with no payee.

The tenancy registration page gives no validity period for the certificate, no deadline for registering and no statement of who pays the fee. Its trustee centre total of AED 220 does not show its VAT line.

The complaint page states no sanction and cites no law. The police warning was read only in a newspaper report, not on the police website, and as reported it carries no figures.

In the reported warning, the money is requested before a viewing or an official contract. The official pages describe steps at which ownership and identity are examined by someone other than the advertiser.

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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