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: A company has rented a small office in a business center, but has been unable to pay the rent for a few months since the COVID-19 lockdown. The business center has locked up the office, preventing access and usage, but continues to accrue the new unpaid rents as being due even though the company has no access to use the premises. Is this legal? The lease mentions that the landlord is allowed to lock up the office in case of late payments, but I had in mind that was illegal, hence that this clause was invalid, and that the company should have access to the office and to retrieve its belonging from there. Thanks, E.

Q: We have been using an office for rent in Al Karama since 2014 and renewed contract in August 2020. Now, since business is less we wanted to vacate the office because the rent was high and we informed the real estate office but they are saying we need to pay 2 months rent for free. Also, they are saying they will take AED 8500 old security deposit for damages and repair of office but there is no damage in office and it doesn't even have any interiors or partition works done, just open office. Kindly advise if we have any rights to vacate without paying additional payments.

Q: Last year was very difficult for the business as we really feel the effect of pandemic. Everything else was suffering and there’s the delay in salaries and some payables in the company and that include that office rent. We were being charged of AED 60k for 1 year, payable in 12 installments. At first, we were okay and paying it on time, but later on, although we were paying, it is getting delayed due to delay of receivables as well and with low cashflow. Tenancy: July 2021 to July 19, 2022 Recently, the company started recovering so all the pending dues for the office rent were paid before the end of tenancy contract. However, the landlord kept saying that we need to vacate the office as we are delaying the payment last couple of months. NO notice from his side thru email, no agency involved. He plans to increase the rent, I asked him how much is it but still wants us to evict us. I have two days more until the end of tenancy, does the landlord have the right to evict us?

Q: We had an arrest warrant against our company owner for unpaid office rent in Dubai. As per the court order, they evicted us, sold our assets, claimed AED 95000, and requested an arrest warrant. We lost all our documents to run the company further which was removed by the landlord as per court order and not able to pay this amount as the company was in a huge loss for the last 2 years. Is there any option to remove the arrest warrant and the case? The company's legal form is a sole proprietorship.

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.