How to Keep a Leasing Power of Attorney for a Dubai Owner

The owner is not in the room to sign. Before anyone signs, the lease file holds the notarised leasing power of attorney: the owner, the attorney, the unit, the date, and the leasing acts written on the paper. A chat that says someone may sign is not that paper. Joint owners use this same authority. A company signatory pack, a change of landlord after a sale, and an Abu Dhabi Tawtheeq pack are different files.

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

The paper stored with the lease

The leasing acts on the sheet limit what the attorney may do. Signing the tenancy, or managing it, has to be among them. The same sheet names the owner, the attorney, the unit, and the date.

The Dubai Land Department tenancy guide describes the owner's representative as a person who represents the owner under a power of attorney. On a jointly owned property, that representative can be an owner whom the other owners have authorised by a power of attorney. The guide asks for the landlord's passport, the agent's passport, and a copy of the power of attorney. The landlord's passport is on that list for one owner and for joint owners. Where one of the landlords is authorised to manage, a person dealing with that landlord takes a photocopy of the power of attorney.

On the department's live FAQ, a legal proxy may deal with that person's properties only within the limits written on a properly legalised power of attorney. A sheet limited to a sale, a mortgage, or a gift stays inside those acts. The title stays as it is, and so does the landlord's name on the contract.

Ejari, Dubai's register of tenancy contracts, asks for an official power of attorney when a representative acts. The register-or-renew card says that, through a Real Estate Services Trustee office, the landlord is the owner or a legal representative with an official power of attorney, and the applicant is the tenant or a legal representative with an official power of attorney. Through the system, a representative of an individual owner needs a legal power of attorney authorising management of the properties.

Ejari user registration for an owner's representative asks for an Emirates ID, or a valid passport when the representative is a non-resident, the owner's number at the Land Department, and an official power of attorney from the owner. The same user card also lists a court guardianship, or a document from the Endowments and Minors Affairs, beside the power of attorney. For a company lessor, the card asks for a leasing-and-management licence in Trakheesi, the Land Department's licensing system. The court paper is a different file, and so is that licence.

A notary public in Dubai attests the signatures of the parties on the document and may validate the date. Law No. 26 of 2021 amends Law No. 4 of 2013 on notaries public and is the statute that describes that role. The lease file holds the attested authority. The appointment stays with the notary.

An owner in the room, or an attorney on the paper

The department's FAQ and the tenancy guide answer different people. The FAQ asks who should sign the lease when more than one owner is on the title. Its answer is that one of the owners can sign the contract in the absence of a power of attorney.

Where the owner leases and manages the property, the tenancy guide says a jointly owned property should have a power of attorney from the owners to the applicant, authenticated at the notary public. That applicant is the person the owners authorise to manage, rather than an owner who is in the room and will sign.

What you keep depends on where the paper was issued

To register a tenancy at a Real Estate Services Trustee office, the Dubai Land Department FAQ asks for the original unified tenancy contract, the applicant's UAE ID, and the official power of attorney when the applicant is an attorney. A power of attorney issued in Dubai can be entered by its number, without attaching the document at that counter. A power of attorney issued in another emirate must be attached. Entering the number still leaves the owner's copy in the lease file.

A power of attorney issued outside the UAE is accepted for a Land Department transaction after a set of ratifications. The FAQ requires ratification by the notary public and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the country of origin, then by the UAE embassy in that country, and finally by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs FAQ lists a power of attorney of a personal nature among individual documents, and a power of attorney of a commercial nature among commercial documents. Documents must already be attested by the appropriate bodies before the ministry attests them. That attestation is the last step the Land Department names.

What goes on the file before anyone signs

Dubai Courts lists an application for attestation of a power of attorney and a request for attestation of its revocation. If a revocation has been attested, file it beside the authority.

The lease file is complete when it holds the notarised leasing power of attorney before anyone signs: the owner, the attorney, the unit, the date, and the leasing acts on the paper, with the owner's copy kept under the rule for where it was issued. If one owner will sign in person, the file does not need this authority or a co-owner letter.

Keep a notary fee and any dirham amount off this leasing file. A validity period stated for a sale or a purchase stays on that transaction. Record the date on this paper, and any end date the paper itself writes. The live list of attestation services is on the Dubai Courts service directory.

IziRento can store the authority with the lease. It does not notarise the paper, and it does not register the tenancy.