Q: Hi, My rental contract expires in December 2016, however, since I can't afford the rent I am giving my two months notice to vacate the place by September 2016 paying 2 months rent. However, the landlord tells me that I can't stay in the place during my notice period and I still have to pay rent for 2 months. Please advise.

Q: Back in April, I had signed for an office space in order to start registering my business. However, due to my investor backing out immediately afterwards, I had to halt my plans and cancel the office space. However, the office space management refused to cancel the lease as the contract has a clause stating that in the event of cancellation of the contract, I am still liable to pay the entire amount of the rent, regardless of not having used the office space at all. They continued to make invoices and are threatening with legal action if I do not pay. I would like some advice on how to handle this situation as I do not have the funds necessary to pay off an office space for one year. I feel it is unfair that they should force me to pay for an office I have not used nor planned on using, having informed them of this within a month of the contract being signed.

Q: I own a business in Abu Dhabi and my office is located in a business centre. The business centre issued a Tawtheeq and I renewed my trade licence. Four months later, I gave a notice to the business centre to leave the office. They said I need to provide them with the new trade licence that has the new office address so they can give me back the 2 security checks and the one-month cash deposit they have. I didn't rent a new office yet and I understood the business centre managed to cancel the Tawtheeq. However, they still insist on getting the updated trade licence with the new office address so they can rent again the office I was occupying, they said it was what the "Tawtheeq" department asks for. Is this all legal? What are my options? Do I necessarily need to have a new office to claim my 2 cheques and deposit back? Thanks

Q: Hello Miss Amira, This is A. from a properties company. For a commercial property (office), I have two questions. Q-1: How many days should be the early vacating notice from the tenant? Q-2: How much is the penalty of the tenant for breaking the contract early? Kindly reply to me at your earliest. Regards, J. A.

Q: I want to do early cancellation of my tenancy contract in Sharjah. When I approached my real estate, they said that as per the rules, the contract is valid for one year so it cannot be canceled. Please advise how to approach the real estate team for cancellation.

Q: Dear Sir/Madam, We are in the process of setting up our company in the UAE. We have found a warehouse that fits our requirements and we have paid the security deposit and the agency fees. We would like to confirm some points before signing the contract: - Notice period: The owner said that we should inform him one month in advance if we want to leave and exit the contract. Is there a clause in the DREC contract that states this? Are there any penalty fees? How can we avoid any problems with this? - No Objection Certificate (NOC): The owner promised to give us an NOC after the contract is signed to allow us to upgrade the power and install air conditioning. How can we make sure that this happens? Should we have him include this in the contract terms? In general, can we trust their promises or should we get a letter before signing the contract? Note that they are refusing to give us an NOC and we have been told that we took too long to finalize the contract. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Q: Hi, I paid 10% (booking fee) to a real estate company for renting a warehouse compound in Dubai. We had a verbal and written agreement (via invoice) that if the deal didn’t go through, they would refund the full 10% booking fee. The landlord took a lot of time and the deal didn’t go through, now one of the real estate agents is saying his partner is a scammer (2 owners). He says he always does this and does not refund clients' booking amounts. Right now, one partner says he will refund the money but it’s been a month since I asked for the money back. He is always telling stories. However, he gave me a personal cheque of around 60k saying this was a guarantee cheque. However, he didn’t have any money in it so asked me not to deposit it. I really need my money back. How to proceed with this? Should I go to RERA or the police to help me get my money back asap? Kindly assist. Thank you

An interview-format article covering the topic of defaulting on commercial lease in the UAE and related procedures. This is from the legal podcast of lawyer Ludmila Yamalova, the founder of Lawgical with LYLAW. In this article, Ludmila discusses what one should do if the tenant becomes unresponsive.

The provisions of this Law apply to real property leased out in the Emirate of Dubai, including vacant and agricultural lands, but excluding hotel establishments and real property provided by natural or legal persons as accommodation to their employees at no charge.

Provisions of this Law supersede articles (2), (3), (4), (9), (13), (14), (15), (25), (26), (29), and (36) of Law No. (26) of 2007 Regulating the Relationship between Landlords and Tenants in the Emirate of Dubai. 

This Decree establishes a specialised judicial system to hear rent disputes and develops the procedure for determination of such disputes through an expeditious and simple process for the purpose of realising social and economic stability for all persons involved with the real property rental and other related sectors.