How to File a Change of Landlord When a Dubai Unit Is Sold Mid-Tenancy
After a Dubai sale, keep the new title deed with the existing contract and Ejari, and record the deposit holder, the remaining cheques, and payment details.
Rental operations notes from the IziRento team. Not legal advice.
Key takeaways
A change-of-landlord file keeps one Dubai tenancy together after a mid-term sale. Article 28 of Law No. 26 of 2007 still applies, so the sale does not end the sitting contract. Law No. 33 of 2008 did not replace that article, and the buyer is a landlord for the rest of the term. Keep the new title deed with the existing contract, name who holds the deposit and the remaining cheques, and keep the written payment details.
The title deed names the buyer. The signed contract and the Ejari certificate, Dubai's tenancy registration, still name the seller. The deposit and the remaining cheques have no named holder, and the tenant has no written line for where the next rent goes. The change-of-landlord file is those papers on the sitting contract that passes to the buyer.
Disclaimer: IziRento is operations software, not legal advice. Local tenancy rules vary; check a qualified adviser for binding decisions.
One bundle for the sitting contract
Completion puts the buyer's name on the title deed and leaves the seller's name on the signed contract and the Ejari certificate. The three papers stay together because the sitting contract passes to the buyer. Completion does not close the tenancy.
The twelve-month recovery notice is a different paper. Article 25(2) of Law No. 33 of 2008 is the provision for eviction upon expiry of the lease, including where the owner wishes to sell. Notice of the reasons is given at least twelve months before the eviction date, through a notary or by registered mail. This file does not serve that notice.
First registration, including the document list, is the registration checklist. The certificate already issued stays beside the new title deed. Closing the registration is separate. The cancellation checklist is for that closing, and a sale is not a reason to cancel the sitting contract. The deposit register keeps the receipt and the running balance. This paper names who holds the money now. Deductions and the handover inspection stay on the register.
The title deed and the Ejari record are different records. A note dated 30 July 2026 separates them and says an existing contract generally continues. It sets no deadline for rewriting the certificate. The Dubai Land Department register-or-renew page is the registration channel. Article 28 does not set completion as the date for rewriting the sitting Ejari. A legal review dated 5 September 2026 adds that the tenant's consent is not required for the sale, and that nothing has to be signed again for the contract to bind the buyer. The file uses the contract and the certificate that already exist.
Article 28 still applies to this sale
Read the sale rule before the contract is treated as ended. Article 28 of Law No. 26 of 2007 still applies. Transfer of ownership to a new owner does not affect the tenant's right to continue occupying the property under the lease made with the previous owner. The Arabic text of Article 28 is the controlling wording. It conditions that right on a contract that is ثابت التاريخ. The English portal translates the condition as “fixed term”. The Dubai Land Department tenancy guide reprints that English sentence, including “fixed term”, and it adds no handover fee and no day count. It is a compilation of the translation, not a later amendment.
Law No. 33 of 2008 did not replace Article 28. Where the English and the Arabic conflict, Arabic controls: the amending law says the Arabic text prevails if the translation conflicts. Article 1 of that law supersedes Articles 2, 3, 4, 9, 13, 14, 15, 25, 26, 29, and 36 of Law No. 26 of 2007. The law was issued in Dubai on 1 December 2008. Article 28 is not in the superseded list. Article 7 and Article 20 are not in it either.
The replaced definition of a landlord is a natural or legal person entitled, by law or by agreement, to dispose of the property. It already includes any person to whom ownership is transferred during the lease, and it includes an agent or legal representative and a tenant allowed to sublet. The buyer who takes title during the term is inside that definition and is a landlord for the rest of the term. Occupation continues under the contract made with the previous owner.
Article 7, which the 2008 law left in place, says that if the lease is valid, neither side may end it during the term on its own. It ends by mutual consent, or as that law provides. A completed sale is not that ending. Replaced Article 4 still requires the lease to state the property, the purpose, the term, the rent and how it is paid, and the owner's name if the landlord is not the owner. Lease contracts governed by the law, and any amendments, are registered with RERA, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency. That registration is a separate service.
On that service, a trustee registration is available only where the landlord is the owner or a legal representative with a power of attorney, and the app path expects the owner's data to be up to date. Those conditions belong to registration. Article 28 states no transfer fee, no processing time, and no day count for the deposit, the cheques, or a letter to the tenant.
A note updated in August 2026 makes the same point. The statute does not say how the deposit or the post-dated cheques move between seller and buyer, it does not require the owner to tell the tenant that the unit has been sold, and it does not fix a deadline for an Ejari update after the owner changes. The note recommends written confirmation of who holds the deposit, with the amount already recorded, and written instructions for the next payment.
The sale does not end the current contract
Article 28 of Law No. 26 of 2007 still applies, and Law No. 33 of 2008 did not replace it. The buyer is a landlord for the rest of the term under the replaced definition, and a valid lease is not ended during its term by the sale alone. Do: keep Arabic ثابت التاريخ as the condition in Article 28. Don't: replace it with the English portal gloss “fixed term”. Arabic controls. The file uses the existing written contract and the existing Ejari.
What the file holds after that rule
Once the sale rule has been read, the papers go in one sequence. The existing contract and the existing Ejari stay with the new title deed. The deposit holder, each remaining cheque, and the written payment details follow. The file stops when those pieces are in it.
Fill the change-of-landlord file
Keep the three papers together
Place the new title deed with the existing contract and the existing Ejari certificate. The tenant is not asked to sign a new lease in order for Article 28 to apply. A first registration is not opened from this paper, and the sitting registration is not cancelled because the unit was sold.
Name who holds the deposit
Write the holder, and copy the amount already on the deposit register. Article 20 of Law No. 26 of 2007, which Law No. 33 of 2008 left in place, lets the landlord take a deposit to secure maintenance at the end of the contract and requires the return of that deposit, or what remains of it, when the contract ends. It sets no transfer on completion day and no number of days, and it names no drawer. A legal review dated 5 September 2026 says sellers and buyers usually settle the money between themselves. That is practice between the two of them. Article 20 does not require the money to move when the sale completes. A purchase deposit, including a cheque written for the sale, is a different payment and is not the tenant's security deposit. The return waits until the contract ends.
List the cheques still outstanding
For each cheque still outstanding at completion, copy the number, the date, the amount already written on it, and the payee, and write who holds it. The cheque schedule for the whole tenancy stays its own register. This list does not rebuild that schedule, does not ask a bank to stop a cheque, and is not a demand for unpaid rent.
Keep the written payment details
Give the tenant the new landlord's name and where the next rent goes, in writing, and keep the copy with the file. Article 28 does not require a notice that the unit was sold. Law No. 33 of 2008 defines a notice as a notary, registered mail, hand delivery, or a technological means approved by law. That definition is for notices the law requires. The copy kept here is the record of where rent now goes, not the twelve-month recovery notice. Article 31, which the 2008 law left in place, says an eviction case does not excuse the rent while the case runs, so rent on this tenancy continues.
Stop when those pieces are in the file
Selling the unit vacant still uses the twelve-month recovery notice under Article 25(2). This sequence does not replace that notice. A change to the registration itself belongs to the registration service.
Stop when the file holds the existing contract and the existing Ejari with the new title deed, who now holds the deposit and the remaining cheques, and the written payment details given to the tenant. Do not add a transfer fee, a processing time, a dirham amount, a day count, a sale-contract deposit split, or a statement that the sale restarts the twelve-month notice. Article 28 states none of them.
IziRento stores the file on the tenancy. Storing it does not transfer the title, hold the deposit, update Ejari, or serve a notice. The service is pre-launch. It is not a lawyer, a broker, a conveyancer, or a property manager, and it is not a party to the lease. The record can sit in a workspace.
After a Dubai sale, keep the new title deed with the existing contract and Ejari, and record the deposit holder, the remaining cheques, and payment details.
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This material is for information only and is not legal advice.