How to File a Written Notice Before an Abu Dhabi Lease Expires

The tenancy folder needs a written notice before an Abu Dhabi lease expires. It names the unit and the contract, states that the tenancy will not renew or that the terms will change, and is kept with proof it was delivered. A chat line is not that file. If the tenant stays on and the landlord never objects in writing, the lease is treated as renewed on the same conditions. Read Article 20 and the live rent page, write the notice, and keep the delivery record beside it.

Disclaimer: IziRento is operations software, not legal advice. Local tenancy rules vary; check a qualified adviser for binding decisions.

The written notice is the tenancy file

The lease runs until the end of the term written in the contract, and the parties may renew it for another term by agreement. If that term ends and the tenant remains in occupation with the landlord’s knowledge and without objection, Article 20 of Law No. 20 of 2006 treats the contract as renewed for a similar term on the same conditions. Put that objection in the tenancy file as a written notice, and keep a record that it was delivered.

Either party who does not wish to renew, or who wishes to amend the conditions, must notify the other in writing before the expiry date. The Dari law guide marks Article 20 as amended by Law No. 4 of 2010. For premises leased for residence, the article states two months before expiry. For premises leased for a commercial, industrial, artisanal, or liberal-profession purpose, it states three months before expiry.

The English PDF on Dari calls the longer period “professional purposes or for the purpose of practising a free trade.” The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) English compilation of the amending law names commercial, industrial, liberal profession, and artisanal premises. Both wordings name the same classes in Article 20. Count from the expiry date on the signed contract, using the months that match the use written there.

Those months apply to the premises this law covers. The same Dari law guide marks the scope provision as amended by Law No. 6 of 2009. It applies to premises in the emirate leased for residence or for an industrial, commercial, professional, or artisanal activity, and it leaves out agricultural land and its buildings, government-owned residential lets, land and property allocated to ADNOC for specified petroleum-services industrial use, hotel and tourism property including furnished apartments, and housing occupied by reason of employment. The Executive Council regulates the relationship in the first four of those cases. If the letting may be exempt, or the unit is in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, stop before you count these months.

The notice itself names the unit, the contract, and the expiry date, and it states either that the tenancy will not renew or which terms will change. Keep the delivery record with the notice. A Dubai rent-increase notice, and the twelve-month recovery notice for a Dubai tenancy, are different papers.

Rent on the notice follows the live page

Read the rent rule before any figure goes into the notice. The Dari law guide marks Article 16 as amended by Law No. 6 of 2009. In the English text on Dari, the rent agreed in the contract binds the parties for the lease period specified there. The landlord may not increase that rent more than once a year, and by no more than 5 percent, unless the Chairman of the Executive Council increases, decreases, or cancels the percentage.

The live page is ADREC’s “Temporary update to Annual Rental Cap Increase in Abu Dhabi”, dated 3 June 2026. It says the Government of Abu Dhabi has updated the rental increase percentage from 5 percent to 0 percent per annum on residential, commercial, and industrial properties across the emirate, for a temporary period and until further notice. Renewals are to be processed at 0 percent for the duration of the measure, and renewals and new agreements reference the rental rate on the property’s last registered Tawtheeq contract. Tawtheeq is Abu Dhabi’s tenancy-contract register. The page names residential, commercial, and industrial property, and it does not name artisanal or liberal-profession premises.

The page gives no end date and no Executive Council decision number, and it gives no rent for a unit with no last registered Tawtheeq contract. The 15 percent and 23 percent sentences describe new-lease price movement in the press note. Those figures are not a rent this notice may state. While the page shows 0 percent for the classes it names, a renewal in those classes stays at the last registered Tawtheeq rent.

A change of rent is a change of contract conditions, so it uses this same written notice and the same months in Article 20. The article asks for that notice in writing. A notary is not required, and the article does not name a channel.

Article 23 covers evacuation during the tenancy, and it is subject to Article 20. Article 23(7) requires six months’ notice before the contract expiry date when the landlord wants the premises for his own habitation, and the clause adds conditions of its own. Demolition, rebuilding, elevation, or alteration is a separate ground, and its six-month period is counted from the necessary permits. When the aim is personal occupation or works, this two-month or three-month letter is the wrong form.

The tenancy file is complete when it holds that written notice and the delivery record, dated inside the months Article 20 states. The notice names the unit and the contract and states non-renewal or the changed terms. The window stays in those months. The notice does not need a notary. Leave out any end date or decision number the rent page does not give. IziRento stores the notice and the record and does not serve the notice.

Lease registration is a separate Tawtheeq documents file. If a non-renewal later becomes a claim to affix executive wording, ADJD0009 at the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department asks for proof of notice within the legal term when that claim is an eviction for unwillingness to renew. The tenancy file still needs the notice itself.