Q: My company is FZC - Free Zone Limited Liability Company (FZ-LLC). The company is incorporated in the Free Zone with 2 shareholders and has 2 licenses- Commercial & Industrial and has a warehouse for stocking the goods. Every year when the license is renewed, the warehouse rental is also renewed. In the last 4 years, the licenses and warehouse are not renewed and the warehouse is not handed over to the Authorities. The Authorities filed a legal case saying that the warehouse rental needs to be paid for 4 years, and only then the premises can be vacated. Then the judge issued the verdict saying that the owners are liable to pay. Since the owners cannot pay the amount, the judge orders travel bans and arrest warrants for the owners. The company is LLC, which means in general, the owners of an LLC are not personally liable for the debts of the company. This means that if the company is sued, the owners are not responsible for paying off any debts with their personal assets. Am I right?

Q: Dear sir/madam, We are five employees working for a Dubai-based LLC company. We had a labor case with the company. We won the case, and the court appointed an expert to sell the company's assets. The process has been completed, but the GM had sold all the valuable assets in advance. As a result, there is nothing left in the company. When we checked with Al-Adheed (Dubai Court) for a travel ban, we were told it is not possible as it is an LLC company. At this point, we (with a total claim of 300,000 AED) want to hire a lawyer to: 1. Check if we can request a travel ban or arrest warrant against the GM of the company. 2. We believe that he transferred the money to his personal accounts. So, we want to audit the two company accounts (FZC-AJMAN and LLC-DUBAI) for the last 5 years. The company has mainly two branches, one LLC-DUBAI and FZC-AJMAN. Our visas were under LLC, but most of the invoices and payments were through the FZC account. The owners and VAT numbers of both these companies are the same, and we have email and account statements to prove this. Kindly advise!

Q: Dear sir/madam, Can a partner of a company make an acknowledgment of debt to himself? There is a small professional license company with two partners. Each partner has the power to sign documents singly. Partner 1 gave 1 Million AED as a loan to his company from his personal account. There is no equal amount paid by Partner 2. The company bank accounts show that the company received money from Partner 1 and there is no evidence that this amount was paid back. There is an existing court verdict that states that Partner 1 gave loans to the company and partner 2 did not provide any evidence that it was paid back. Can Partner 1, in his role as partner and signatory with power to sign singly, sign an acknowledgment of debt on company letterhead in favor of himself in his personal capacity? I thank you for your help!

Q: We have a Dubai Mainland Foodstuff trading company that is undergoing legal issues and the company’s assets like company-owned cars, etc are attached by the court. One of the partners is out of the country but the other partner and sponsor are here in the UAE. No travel ban has been issued. Our query is regarding the company car which is currently in the partner’s building parking lot and due to the attachment, it is not allowed to move as the mulligan is unable to be removed. The partner cannot afford to live at this apartment anymore and would like to vacate but what can be done about the car? The other party’s lawyers are not responding regarding this issue either. The company trade license is still valid, can the company car Mulkiya be renewed? What is the option available so that there are no fines due to moving the car out of the building? Thank you

Q: Dear Lawyers, I am a 50% partner in a company. I had given a 2M AED loan to the company about 10 years ago. There are expert reports and bank records to prove the loan. The company does not have any bank balances or assets. Should I start a lawsuit against the company and demand 2M AED, or should I start a lawsuit against the other 50% partner and demand 1M AED? One benefit of suing the company is that I can obtain an acknowledgment of debt, and later in an execution case, I can issue a certificate of solvency to have the other partner arrested. However, suing the other 50% partner directly would include their name in the executive writ. Please guide me! (I believe all necessary legal information is provided here. If something is missing, I can provide additional details here.)

The provisions of this Law apply to the commercial companies established in the UAE and the foreign companies that have established in the UAE a base to conduct any activity therein or established a branch or representative office. The Law abrogates Federal Law No. (8) of 1984 Concerning Commercial Companies.

The provisions of this law, promulgating UAE Civil Code, govern the civil transactions in the United Arab Emirates. The commercial transactions remain subject to the laws and regulations applicable in their regard.