How to File a Countersigned Lease Notice to the Dubai Owners Association

The lease is already signed. The sheet for the owners association, or for the office this building names, is the written notice that names the unit and the tenant. A chat message saying the association already knows is not that notice. The move-in permit names the move. The move-out permit is the exit sheet. Neither sheet tells the association who holds the unit.

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

The notice that names the unit and the tenant

The lease is signed, and the association still needs a written notice of who holds the unit. That notice is this file. Where the building asks for a countersignature, the tenant or the tenant’s agent signs as well. A sheet that leaves out the unit, or leaves out the tenant, is not the file. If the manager later sends an approval, an acknowledgement, or a reference, that reply stays with the signed notice and the lease copy.

The move-in permit is a different PDF. Gardenia Townhomes, one precinct rather than a city template, publishes a moving-in and moving-out form that asks for the townhouse, the owner, the proposed move date, and the removal company. The form says no one may move in or out unless the precinct association manager has issued an NOC, and that new residents complete a resident registration form. It does not ask for the tenant’s Emirates ID or a copy of the lease.

The moving form names the move. The inbound move permit, including any lift or gate slot, is a different file. The move-out permit is the exit sheet.

A message in chat that the association already knows the tenant does not put the unit and the name on the association’s record.

The other papers stay on their own pages

A fit-out consent is the landlord’s permission for works in the unit. An unpaid-rent demand asks for rent that has not been paid. A non-rent breach cure notice covers a breach other than unpaid rent. Each of those is a different file.

Ejari, Dubai’s register of tenancy contracts, is a second filing. Dubai Now’s register, renew, or terminate service is the owner completing the contract in the app and the tenant reviewing and signing it. Gardenia’s lease notification says the lease will be registered in Ejari and, separately, that the association is notified. If this building’s form also says the lease will be registered, that registration is on the Ejari document file.

Service and usage charges stay with the owner. The receipts for those charges belong on the service-charge receipt file.

Article 16 allows the lease and does not list this notice

Law No. (6) of 2019 concerns ownership of jointly owned real property in the Emirate of Dubai. The English text is the PDF on the Dubai legislation site. If the English and Arabic texts differ, Arabic prevails.

Article 51(a) repeals Law No. (27) of 2007. Article 51(b) keeps bylaws, regulations, and resolutions made under that earlier law only so far as they do not contradict Law No. (6) of 2019, and only until they are replaced. Article 49 transfers to management entities the rights and obligations of owners associations that arose before the 2019 law. Some communities still call the office the owners association manager. The notice goes to the office this building names.

On 6 January 2020 the Dubai Land Department published a restatement of Article 16, quoting the chairman of the Rental Disputes Center. The page says the owner and the tenant must follow the statute, the master community declaration, and the building management regulation, toward other owners and occupants, the owners committee, and the administration entity, and that service and usage charges stay with the owner unless the lease says otherwise. It is not a form for naming the tenant.

A Mondaq note dated 2 June 2011, “Leasing A Strata Unit In Dubai,” describes the Directions of 13 April 2010 under the jointly owned property law then in force. On a lease, a sub-lease, or a usufruct (a right to use the unit), the owner gives the owners association a written notice countersigned by the tenant or the tenant’s agent. The note lists the unit number and address; the owner’s name and any new registered address; the nature of the dealing; the tenant’s name, registered address, mobile, and fax or email; and, if a broker manages the unit, the broker’s name and contact details.

The note says the association needs that record so it can reach the tenant about the unit or the common areas. The page is commentary on those Directions. It is not the text of the 2019 law.

The Direction for General Regulation, effective 13 April 2010 and still hosted by the Dubai Land Department, does not contain that lease-notice clause. It contains a community-rules enforcement notice served on an owner or occupier. That notice is a different sheet.

The working sheet is the one this building’s manager uses. Gardenia’s Notification of Lease or Renewal is one community’s form, published from the community’s downloads page for Wasl’s owners association manager. The owner signs and dates it. The form does not show a line for the tenant’s countersignature. Another building uses the sheet its manager gives.

Gardenia’s separate sales-and-leases NOC request says a lease request must be accompanied by the notification of lease or renewal. Both go to that community’s owners association manager, at the address printed on the forms, [email protected]. The cheque line on the NOC sits under additional selling requirements and names no amount. It is not a charge for this lease notice.

Send the notice and keep the approval with it

The notice goes out after the lease is signed, on the sheet this building’s manager uses. Any approval that comes back stays with that notice.

Stop when the notice that names the unit and the tenant has been sent to the office this building names, and any lease approval, acknowledgement, or reference is kept with that notice. This article does not state a fee or a deadline for the lease notice. IziRento stores the signed notice and the community lease approval and does not notify the association.