Picture a move-out walk-through in Dubai. The agent opens the oven door, tilts the grill pan towards the light, runs a finger along the top edge of the air conditioning return grille, photographs the grout behind the taps, and starts a list on a phone. If the conversation turns to money, that list becomes the case, and a tenant arguing from memory is at a disadvantage against an agent holding photographs.
The law that governs this is short, it is published in English on the Dubai Government Legislation portal, and it says a good deal less than either side expects.
The line the whole argument turns on
Article 21 of Law No. (26) of 2007 Regulating the Relationship between Landlords and Tenants in the Emirate of Dubai reads:
Upon the expiry of the term of the Lease Contract, the Tenant will must surrender possession of the Real Property to the Landlord in the same condition in which the Tenant received it at the time of entering into the Lease Contract except for ordinary wear and tear or for damage due to reasons beyond the Tenant's control. In the event of dispute between the two parties, the matter must be referred to the Tribunal to issue an award in this regard.
That is the official English text, awkward verb and all. The portal notes that the Arabic text prevails in case of conflict.
Three things in that sentence matter.
- The comparator is fixed, and it is not "clean". It is the condition at the time of entering into the lease contract. A flat handed over with a tired oven and dull grout does not have to come back better than that.
- There are two carve-outs, not one. Ordinary wear and tear is the famous one. Damage due to reasons beyond the tenant's control sits right beside it.
- The article sets a standard of condition. It does not name a cleaning method, a contractor, a checklist, an invoice or a sum of money.
Article 19 sets the standard during the tenancy, and it is worth reading in full:
The Tenant must pay the Rent on due dates and maintain the Real Property in such a manner as an ordinary person would maintain his own property. Without prejudice to the Tenant's obligation to carry out the restorations that have been agreed upon or which are customary for Tenants to undertake, the Tenant may not make any changes or carry out any restoration or maintenance works to the Real Property unless so permitted by the Landlord and after obtaining required licences from the competent official entities.
The first sentence sets the bar: an ordinary person maintaining his own property, not a hotel housekeeper. The second cuts both ways. It keeps the tenant's duty to carry out restorations that were agreed or are customary for tenants, and it bars the tenant from doing maintenance works without the landlord's permission.
One point worth settling early. Law No. (33) of 2008 amended the 2007 law, and its Article (1) lists exactly which provisions it supersedes: Articles (2), (3), (4), (9), (13), (14), (15), (25), (26), (29) and (36). Articles 16, 17, 19, 20 and 21 are not in that list. They stand as originally enacted.
Ordinary wear and tear, item by item
The law does not define ordinary wear and tear. The line it draws is fault. Article 17 puts on the landlord the wear and tear the tenant did not cause:
Further, the Landlord will be responsible for any defect, damage, deficiency, and wear and tear occurring to the Real Property for reasons not attributable to the fault of the Tenant.
Damage attributable to the tenant's fault sits on the other side of that line. Translated into the items that appear on a handover list in a Dubai flat:
| On the agent's list | Where the line falls | Before the walk-through |
|---|---|---|
| Scuffed and marked paint | Marks at hand height along a hallway, and the pale shadow where a sofa stood, are the record of ordinary use. Drilled holes, gouges and a wall repainted a different colour are not. | Photograph each wall square on. Fill and touch up any hole the tenant made. |
| Discoloured grout | Grout darkens in a shower room with ordinary use. Cracked or missing grout is a maintenance question, and under Article 16 maintenance during the term is the landlord's unless the contract says otherwise or the tenant caused it. | Clean the grout lines. Colour is cleaning, cracking is maintenance. |
| A greasy oven | Light residue is use. Carbonised deposit on the door glass and the back of the cavity is much harder to call ordinary. | Degrease the oven interior, racks and grill pan. |
| Curtain marks and rail holes | Curtains fade at the leading edge and drop at the hem. That is age. Holes drilled for a replacement rail are an alteration. | Article 23 bars removing leasehold improvements unless otherwise agreed, so leave new rails in place and put back any original curtains or blinds that came with the flat. |
| A clogged air conditioning filter | Dust loads a filter. That is what a filter is for. A filter never touched across a whole tenancy is a different conversation, and whose job it was depends on Article 16 and the contract. | Read the contract's maintenance clause before accepting a charge. |
| Scale on taps and shower screens | Mineral deposit forms on taps, screens and shower heads in ordinary use. Build-up heavy enough to etch the glass is harder to argue. | Descale, then polish dry so the photographs show metal, not water spots. |
| Marks on walls behind furniture | The wall behind a fridge, a headboard or a television unit is the one nobody looks at until the furniture leaves. | Move everything out first, then look. |
Almost everything on that list is either cleaning, which a deep clean is built for, or maintenance, and the law treats the two differently.
Article 16: maintenance during the tenancy is the landlord's, unless the contract says otherwise
Article 16 is the clause that decides who pays for maintenance:
Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, the Landlord will, during the term of the Lease Contract, be responsible for the Real Property maintenance works and for repairing any defect or damage that may affect the Tenant's intended use of the Real Property.
Cracked grout, a dripping mixer, a failing water heater, a sagging cupboard door and an unserviced air conditioning system are maintenance items, not cleaning. Article 16 puts maintenance during the term on the landlord unless the contract says otherwise, and Article 17 makes the landlord responsible for wear and tear not caused by the tenant's fault. Article 19 still leaves the tenant with restorations that were agreed or are customary for tenants, and damage the tenant caused stays the tenant's.
The words that matter most are "unless otherwise agreed". Article 16 lets the contract move maintenance onto the tenant, so the maintenance clause is the first thing to read before conceding or claiming anything. Read the registered version rather than the copy on a phone: Article 4, as amended in 2008, requires all lease contracts governed by the law, and any amendments to them, to be registered with RERA.
One practical consequence of Article 19 is easy to miss. A tenant who quietly repairs something mid-tenancy, without the landlord's permission, has done the one thing that article says a tenant may not do. Reporting the fault in writing keeps the maintenance question where Article 16 puts it.
A deposit is a deposit, not a cleaning fee
Article 20 is the only provision in the law that mentions the security deposit:
When entering into a Lease Contract, the Landlord may obtain from the Tenant a security deposit to ensure maintenance of the Real Property upon the expiry of the Lease Contract, provided that the Landlord undertakes to refund such deposit or remainder thereof to the Tenant upon the expiry of the Lease Contract.
Note what is not in there.
- The deposit is permitted, not required, and its stated purpose is to ensure maintenance of the property on expiry.
- The landlord's undertaking is to refund the deposit, or the remainder of it.
- The law fixes no percentage, no standard deduction and no schedule of charges.
- The law sets no deadline. Article 20 says "upon the expiry of the Lease Contract" and stops there. Any figure in days quoted elsewhere is not in this statute.
A deposit is security against a shortfall in condition, and condition is measured by Article 21. It is not a pre-agreed cleaning fee, and a landlord treating it as one has skipped the step where the shortfall is shown.
Why dated photographs settle this and receipts do not
Article 21 compares two states of the same property: the condition at handover in, and the condition at handover out. An invoice is evidence of neither. It shows money was spent after the tenant left. It does not show the property fell below the condition in which it was received, and it cannot, because it was created after the only comparison that matters became impossible to make.
Photographs can, if they are taken properly.
- Two dated sets, not one. A set before the clean protects against a later claim that damage was hidden. A set after it records the condition at surrender.
- Square on, wide then close, in empty rooms. A wall photographed at an angle in low light makes ordinary shadow look like staining, and the walls behind the furniture are only visible once the rooms are empty.
- The check-in record on the other side of the scale. If the agent took move-in photographs or an inventory, ask for them in writing, early, while the relationship is still administrative.
- The meters and the keys. A photograph of the meters and of the keys on the counter dates the end of occupation better than any letter.
A proposed deduction is hard to sustain against a photograph of the same surface, taken on the day the keys changed hands.
What a move-out clean covers, room by room
A move-out clean in Dubai is not a heavier version of a weekly clean. It is aimed at the surfaces that appear on handover lists, which means it goes inside, behind and underneath. OUSIS deep cleaning covers inside appliances, behind furniture, grout and skirting boards, which deals with the cleaning rows of the table above: the oven, the grout and the walls behind the furniture.
Kitchen. Inside the appliances, with the kitchen degreased around them.
Bathrooms. Sanitised, with the grout lines cleaned.
Bedrooms and living areas. Behind the furniture and along the skirting boards, once the rooms are empty.
Air conditioning cleaning and filter replacement are a separate job, under AC maintenance rather than cleaning.
An end of tenancy clean works best in an empty flat, after the furniture and boxes are out, and before the walk-through rather than on the same morning. OUSIS asks for a day or two's notice, and same day or next day is possible on WhatsApp, subject to availability. Teams bring all supplies and equipment, so an empty flat with the water and power still connected is enough.
Where the contract puts minor maintenance on the tenant, or an item is damage the tenant caused (a drilled hole, a broken fitting), closing it out before the walk-through removes it from the list. Wall repairs, tile grouting and rehanging curtains and blinds sit under handyman work, and paint touch-ups under painting and decoration. They are worth quoting separately, so cleaning and maintenance stay separate on the agent's list.
Tenants who have already left the country
Some move-outs are finished after the tenant has flown. The flat is empty, the keys sit with a friend, a concierge or an agent, and somebody else attends the walk-through.
That is workable. OUSIS runs a key or access code service and sends a completion notification when the job is done, so the clean can be scheduled, carried out and confirmed with nobody in the country. The quote comes over WhatsApp, and payment is taken after the service, by cash, bank transfer or card.
One arrangement is worth making before the flight: ask whoever holds the keys to take the photograph set on handover day and send it the same day. Agreeing that in advance is easier than fixing it from another time zone.
The registration is a separate loose end. The Land Department runs a Cancel Tenancy Contract service for an expired contract on a vacated property. It is free through the Dubai REST app or the Ejari system on the Land Department website, where the property is not managed by a real estate company or by an owner with Ejari system access, or AED 40 plus VAT at a real estate services trustee centre.
If it goes to the Rent Disputes Settlement Centre
Article 21 refers disputes to "the Tribunal". That body has been renamed. Article 4 of Decree No. (26) of 2013 applies the decree to the Special Tribunal formed in 1993 and replaces the name "Special Tribunal to Determine Disputes between Landlords and Tenants" with "Rent Disputes Settlement Centre in the Emirate of Dubai", and Article 5 puts its head office in the Land Department. Its own website presents it as the Rental Disputes Center. Under Article 6 the Centre has exclusive jurisdiction over rent disputes between landlords and tenants of property in the Emirate, including in free zones, with carve-outs for free zones holding their own tribunals, lease finance contracts, and long-term leases under Law No. (7) of 2006.
What that means for a withheld deposit:
- There is a mediation route before a hearing. The decree sets up a Mediation and Conciliation Directorate, which will seek to settle a dispute amicably within fifteen days of the parties appearing before it, a period the supervising judge can extend. Article 10 adds that one half of the fee will be refunded if an amicable settlement is reached.
- Fees are published. The Centre lists 3.5% of the claimed amount for monetary claims, not less than AED 500 and not more than AED 15,000, plus AED 100 for process service and AED 10 each in knowledge and innovation fees. Filing through a real estate services trustee centre adds a partner fee of AED 130 plus VAT.
- Small judgments are usually final. Judgments of the First Instance Division are appealed to the Appellate Division, except those in rent claims worth less than AED 100,000, which the decree states are final. Article 17(b) keeps a short list of exceptions, such as an eviction judgment, a breach of the rules of jurisdiction, or testimony later declared false. Where an appeal does lie, the limit is fifteen days.
With a minimum filing fee of AED 500, it is worth doing the arithmetic against the sum in dispute before filing. Which is the real reason evidence matters: the argument is best won at the walk-through, not at the Centre.
Booking the clean before the walk-through
The order of the steps matters as much as the steps themselves.
- Two weeks out. Ask the agent in writing for the move-in photographs or inventory. Read the maintenance clause in the registered contract. Book the clean for the day after the furniture leaves, a full day before the walk-through.
- Move-out day. Empty the flat completely, including wardrobes, storeroom and balcony. Photograph every wall, floor and appliance while the rooms are bare and before anyone cleans.
- The day after. The clean happens in an empty flat. Fill and touch up any holes the tenant made. Close out any maintenance item that the contract, or the tenant's own fault, puts on the tenant.
- Before the walk-through. Photograph the finished rooms in daylight, then the meters and the keys.
- At the walk-through. Take the list item by item. Sort it into cleaning and maintenance. Ask for every proposed deduction in writing, with the item and the reason attached.
None of that guarantees an outcome, and nobody honest will say otherwise. It changes the shape of the conversation. Article 21 asks one question, condition against condition. A tenant who arrives with two dated sets of photographs and a clean, empty flat can answer it. A landlord holding an invoice and an opinion is answering a different question.
Questions people ask
What can a landlord deduct from a security deposit in Dubai?
Law No. (26) of 2007 does not list permitted deductions. Article 20 allows a deposit to ensure maintenance of the property at expiry and commits the landlord to refund it or whatever remains. Article 21 sets the measure: the property must come back in the condition it was received, except for ordinary wear and tear and damage beyond the tenant's control.
Is there a legal deadline for a Dubai landlord to return a deposit?
The tenancy law sets no number of days. Article 20 says only that the landlord undertakes to refund the deposit, or its remainder, upon expiry of the lease contract. If the refund does not arrive, or the deductions are disputed, the claim goes to the Rent Disputes Settlement Centre, which presents itself online as the Rental Disputes Center and runs a mediation stage before any hearing.
Does a tenant have to pay for a professional move out clean in Dubai?
The law does not require a professional clean or a cleaning receipt. Article 21 requires the property back in the condition in which it was received, allowing for ordinary wear and tear. A contract can add its own cleaning clause, so read it first. Without one, the question is condition, and dated photographs answer it better than an invoice.
Who pays for AC servicing and repairs during a Dubai tenancy?
By default the landlord. Article 16 makes the landlord responsible for maintenance works and for repairing defects that affect the tenant's use during the lease, unless the parties agree otherwise. A contract can move some upkeep onto the tenant, so the maintenance clause decides it, and servicing itself is AC maintenance rather than cleaning. Article 17 makes the landlord responsible only for damage and wear and tear not attributable to the tenant's fault, and Article 21 expects the property back in the condition in which it was received.
Where is a deposit dispute filed in Dubai, and what does it cost?
At the Rent Disputes Settlement Centre (online, the Rental Disputes Center), the name Decree No. (26) of 2013 gave the former Special Tribunal, with its head office in the Dubai Land Department. Monetary claims are charged 3.5% of the amount claimed, at least AED 500 and at most AED 15,000, plus AED 100 process service and AED 10 each in knowledge and innovation fees. Trustee centres add AED 130 plus VAT. Under Article 10 of the decree, half the fee is refunded if an amicable settlement is reached.
How much does it cost to cancel Ejari when moving out?
Cancelling an expired tenancy contract on a vacated property is free through the Dubai REST app or the Ejari system on the Dubai Land Department website, where the property is not managed by a real estate company or by an owner with Ejari system access. At a real estate services trustee centre the Land Department lists a partner fee of AED 40 plus VAT. The service applies once the contract has expired and the property is empty.
Sources
- Dubai Government Legislation portal: Law No. (26) of 2007 Regulating the Relationship between Landlords and Tenants (Articles 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23)
- Dubai Government Legislation portal: Law No. (33) of 2008 Amending Law No. (26) of 2007 (Article 1 list of superseded articles; amended Article 4 on RERA registration)
- Dubai Government Legislation portal: Decree No. (26) of 2013 Concerning the Rent Disputes Settlement Centre (Articles 4, 5, 6, 10, 17, 18)
- Rental Disputes Center, Dubai Land Department: Register First Instance Lawsuit (Rental), service fees (retrieved 19 September 2026)
- Rental Disputes Center, Dubai Land Department: About the Rental Disputes Center (retrieved 19 September 2026)
- Dubai Land Department: Cancel Tenancy Contract service, fees, channels and conditions (retrieved 19 September 2026)
