TenancyDesk Adds Tenancy Workflows Across All Seven UAE Emirates

TenancyDesk now runs emirate-aware tenancy workflows across the UAE. Each deal follows the rules of its property's emirate: notice deadlines from sourced rules, rent checks where the emirate has a rule we apply, registration readiness on Dubai and Abu Dhabi deals, and a traceable record for every rental file.

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Why This Matters

The UAE rental market operates under seven different legal frameworks — one for each emirate. Each has its own:

• Registration system (Ejari, Tawtheeq, Tasdeeq, EJAAR, or municipal)
• Rent-increase rules (Dubai's Decree 43 slabs, Abu Dhabi's 5% cap currently frozen at 0%, Sharjah's committee-set fair rent, no statutory cap in RAK)
• Notice periods (30 days to 3 months)
• Freeze periods (0 to 3 years)
• Dispute resolution (RDC, ADJD RDSC, Sharjah RDC, and more)

Managing properties across multiple emirates means juggling different deadlines, different forms, and different legal obligations. Until now, there was no single platform that understood all seven.

What's New

1. Abu Dhabi: Tawtheeq

Abu Dhabi lease contracts are registered by the landlord through Tawtheeq, delivered via the TAMM platform. The framework is Law No. 20 of 2006 on landlord-tenant relations; registration and its fees are set out in Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2018 (ADREC — Tenancy).

• The landlord registers — not the tenant, not the agent
• Fees are set by the authority's published schedule and depend on the lease term — check the current tariff before quoting a figure to a client
• 5% annual rent cap (Law No. 20 of 2006, Art. 16(2)) — currently 0% under a temporary ADREC freeze in force since 3 June 2026, until ADREC decides otherwise

TenancyDesk checks document readiness for Abu Dhabi deals on the Tawtheeq tab. It does not submit anything to the authority.

2. Sharjah: Law No. 5 of 2024

• There is no percentage cap in the law. Rent is frozen for the first 3 years of the tenancy. After the freeze, an increase is set to the "fair rent" determined by the committee, under Executive Council Resolution No. 43 of 2024
• The landlord certifies the lease — or any renewal of its duration — and pays the fees within 15 days. ️ The Law's official English says "from the date of its drafting"; the Municipality's own template says "from the date of its execution". TenancyDesk counts from the contract date your team records, and shows which date it used
• This is eviction protection, not a minimum lease term. A landlord may not seek eviction before 3 years (residential) or 5 years (commercial, industrial, professional) except on the grounds the Law lists. It protects the tenant's security of tenure; it is not a guaranteed occupancy period, and it does not stop a tenant ending the lease early
• If the tenant terminates early: compensation of not less than 30% of the rent for the remaining term, unless the parties agree otherwise — a default minimum, not a fixed penalty
• An uncertified lease can still be taken to the Rental Disputes Centre, using any form of evidence. What it does close is the government window: except for the centre, government entities in the emirate refuse an unverified lease in any transaction or service

3. The Northern Emirates

️ Coverage here is deliberately cautious. Several published figures for these emirates come from secondary sources, and a number we have not read in the law is not enforced as binding.

Where a figure is advisory, TenancyDesk shows it as guidance and does not block a transaction on it.

How It Works

Your team sets the emirate on each property, and every deal follows it. TenancyDesk then:

1. Checks rent increases where it applies the emirate's rule — Dubai's Decree 43/2013 bands against the rental index, and Abu Dhabi's cap (currently 0% on renewals under the ADREC measure in force since 3 June 2026)
2. Calculates legal notice deadlines for the deal's emirate
3. Shows registration readiness on Dubai (Ejari) and Abu Dhabi (Tawtheeq) deals; for the other emirates, the Registration tab records the registration
4. Shows advisory figures as guidance where an emirate's rule is not verified, without blocking the deal

Registration itself is done on each authority's own system; TenancyDesk does not submit anything.

Guides

We have published guides on Tawtheeq registration, the Abu Dhabi rent cap, Sharjah tenancies and the Northern Emirates, plus a rent-cap comparison and a registration-systems reference, in five languages, in our Guides and Help Center.

Get Started

Set the emirate on your properties; each deal follows it. Start your free trial.

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Questions about a specific emirate's rules? Write to compliance@tenancydesk.com

TenancyDesk Editorial Team