Power of attorney for UAE property
Signing a power of attorney is how most owners abroad get anything done in the UAE, and it is also the single document with the most room for something to go wrong. What it permits, how long it survives, how it is revoked, and the one thing the holder may not do without your explicit say-so.
4 answers, each with the official source it rests on Β· Last checked 24 August 2026
What a power of attorney lets someone do
A power of attorney is not one thing, and the difference decides whether it works at all. The federal civil law recognises an agency that is general, special, conditional, or postponed to a future date. What matters for property is the line it draws next: anything beyond managing and preserving an asset requires a special agency that specifies the type of act, and the law names sale and mortgage among those acts. So a document written in broad terms, giving authority over all your property matters, does not let someone sell for you. The law is explicit that an agency expressed in general terms, without saying what is intended, grants only acts of management. It even sets out what management covers: letting the property for a term of up to three years, preserving and maintaining it, collecting what is owed, paying debts. Selling is not in that list. A second point is often stated the wrong way round. A special agency for a specific type of act is valid even where the property itself is not specifically identified, the one exception being a gift, which does have to be specific. The requirement is that the POWER is named, not that a title deed number appears. Beyond that, an agency gives your agent authority only over the matters written into it and whatever those matters necessarily require, and the agent is not permitted to exceed the powers given. If you are having one drafted, the question is not how wide it can be made, but whether the specific act you need is named.
βAny act that is not an act of management and preservation requires a special agency specifying the type of act and the dispositions it entails, particularly in donations, sale, settlement, mortgage, acknowledgment, arbitration, administering and accepting an oath, and pleading before the court.β
Source: United Arab Emirates β official legislation portal β Federal Decree by Law Promulgating the Civil Transactions Law Β· Correct as of 24 August 2026 Β· Applies: UAE-wide
How long a power of attorney lasts
There is a widely repeated rule that a power of attorney used to sell property in Dubai expires after two years. We could not find it in the law. What the federal civil law says is simpler: an agency ends when the work it was given for is completed, when the term specified for the agency expires, or on the death or loss of legal capacity of either the person who gave it or the person who holds it. Duration is whatever the document itself sets; the law imposes no ceiling of its own. Nothing in Dubai's law on notaries public, its notary fee schedule, or its rules for digital notary services sets one either. That is not proof that no limit is applied in practice. A registration trustee or the Land Department may decline a document they consider too old, and if you are relying on an older power of attorney the sensible step is to confirm it will be accepted before you commit to a completion date. What it does mean is that we will not state a number that no published rule supports. The provision most owners should actually know is a different one. A power of attorney does not survive the person who gave it. If the owner dies, the authority ends at that moment, however recently the document was signed and whatever term it states, and the property then follows inheritance rather than the agent's instructions.
βExpiry of the term specified for the agency.β
Who to go to
Dubai Courts Notary Public for notarising or re-issuing a power of attorney, and the Dubai Land Department or its registration trustees for whether a particular document will be accepted at transfer β acceptance on the day is their decision, not a rule we can state.
Source: United Arab Emirates β official legislation portal β Federal Decree by Law Promulgating the Civil Transactions Law Β· Correct as of 24 August 2026 Β· Applies: UAE-wide
Whether your agent can sell the property to themselves
The federal civil law addresses this directly. A person is not permitted to contract with themselves in the name of someone they represent, whether for their own account or for another person's, without the principal's authorisation. Applied to property, an agent holding your power of attorney cannot simply sell your property to themselves; the authority has to have been given. The same provision adds something usually left out, and it changes the picture: the principal may ratify the contract afterwards. So a sale made without that authority is not automatically beyond rescue, it is subject to your approval rather than valid on its own. Two related rules sit alongside it. Your agent may not use your property for their own benefit, and if they do they owe you compensation for the loss. And an agent cannot hand the job to a substitute unless you allowed it; where they do so without permission, they stay responsible for the substitute's acts as though they were their own. One thing this card will not tell you, because the law we read does not say it, is whether the same restriction automatically extends to a sale to your agent's spouse or close relatives. It is widely stated that it does. The provision here is about the agent contracting with themselves, and if that distinction matters to your situation it is a question for a notary public or a lawyer rather than something to assume.
βA person may not be permitted to contract with themself in the name of the person they represent, whether the contract is for their own account or for the account of another person, without the authorization of the principal. However, the principal in this case may ratify the contract.β
Who to go to
Dubai Courts Notary Public for how a self-dealing authority must be worded, and a lawyer or the courts where a transaction has already happened β whether a particular sale stands is a legal question about specific facts, not a fact card.
Source: United Arab Emirates β official legislation portal β Federal Decree by Law Promulgating the Civil Transactions Law Β· Correct as of 24 August 2026 Β· Applies: UAE-wide
Cancelling a power of attorney
You can normally cancel a power of attorney whenever you want. The federal civil law lets the person who gave it revoke or restrict the agent's authority at any time, and the agent's agreement is not required. There are two exceptions, and they are the ones worth knowing because they reverse the answer. If the agency involves the right of a third party, or if it was issued in the agent's own interest, it cannot be ended or narrowed without the consent of the person it was made for. That covers the case where a power of attorney was given as part of a deal rather than as a convenience. And even where you can revoke freely, you may owe compensation if you do it at an inappropriate time or without acceptable justification. Cancelling is also not the end of the job, and the law explains why. Where both your agent and the person they are dealing with are unaware that the authority has ended, the effects of a contract they sign can still fall on you or on your heirs. Telling people is not a formality; it is what closes the exposure. One further provision helps: if your agent had passed authority down to a substitute, revoking the main agency cancels every sub-agency under it automatically. The practical order is to revoke before a notary public, then make sure the agent, and anyone likely to deal with them over the property, actually knows.
βThe principal may revoke or restrict the authority of their agent at any time, unless the agency involves a right of a third party or was issued in the interest of the agent, in which case the principal may not terminate or restrict it without the consent of the person in whose interest it was issued.β
Who to go to
Dubai Courts Notary Public β it registers and attests the revocation, and is the body that can say what a specific cancellation requires. Where an agent may already have acted, that is a matter for a lawyer or the courts rather than a fact card.
Source: United Arab Emirates β official legislation portal β Federal Decree by Law Promulgating the Civil Transactions Law Β· Correct as of 24 August 2026 Β· Applies: UAE-wide
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