Service charges and what you actually own in a Dubai building
Buy an apartment in Dubai and you buy two things: the unit, and a share of everything around it. The second one is what the service charge is for, and almost every dispute about the bill turns out to be a disagreement about where that line falls. This page sets out the line, who draws it, and what the rules say when the money is not paid.
7 answers, each with the official source it rests on · Last checked 25 August 2026
What you own in a building and what is shared
In a jointly owned building the law draws the line between your unit and the parts everyone shares, and it matters because the line decides who pays to fix what. Your unit runs to the base of the joists under the floor, and takes in the plaster and other ceilings, the internal area, the non-support internal walls and the walls surrounding the unit, the windows and glass, doors and frames, the lighting and the equipment and fixtures that serve the unit, the bathrooms, and the balconies and other ancillary parts allocated to you. It also takes in facilities attached or allocated to your unit such as a garden, a car park, a storage room or a watchman's room, and those count as yours even where they are not next to the unit, provided their area is not counted in the unit's net area. The shared side covers the structure — main supports, foundations, columns, structural walls, ceilings and joists, stairs and stairwells, facades and roofs — along with lifts, tanks, the main utility systems, and the pipes and wiring serving more than one unit. Two qualifications are worth knowing. Nearly all of this applies unless the site plan for your building says otherwise, so the site plan is the document that settles an argument. And a wall dividing your unit from your neighbour's is shared between you both. One rule catches sellers out: a car park allocated to a unit is treated as an integral part of it, cannot be sold separately, and a unit cannot be sold or disposed of without the car parks designated to it.
“The car parks allocated or designated to a Unit under the legislation applicable by the Competent Authority will be deemed an integral part of the Unit, and may not be separated, or sold independently, from that Unit.”
Source: Government of Dubai — Supreme Legislation Committee — Law No. (6) of 2019 Concerning Ownership of Jointly Owned Real Property in the Emirate of Dubai · Correct as of 24 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
Service charges — what they are and who pays them
Service charges are the annual cost of running a building or community — cleaning, security, lifts, chilled water, insurance, management — divided between the owners and charged per square foot. In a jointly owned building the owner is liable for them, and under Law No. (6) of 2019 that liability stays with the owner even where a tenant does not pay. If the amount is disputed, RERA-approved invoices are the reference point.
“invoices approved by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) shall be the reference points in the event of disputes over the charges”
Source: Dubai Land Department — Real estate property owner is obliged to pay service and usage charges for jointly owned property · Correct as of 10 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
How a building's service charges get approved
A building's service charges are not set freely by the management company. Approval for each year's charges is applied for through the Dubai Land Department's Mollak system, and the application has to carry a detailed annual budget for the project along with no fewer than three tenders for each service provider, evaluated against the Real Estate Regulatory Agency's terms. Service contracts, maintenance and insurance contracts and the utility bills are submitted with it, together with an audit by a RERA-accredited auditor.
“This service allows applying for the approval of service fees and utilization fees for joint ownership properties through the online Mollak System.”
Source: Dubai Land Department — Approval of service fees and utilization fees (Mollak) · Correct as of 10 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
Where your service charge money is allowed to go
Service charges are not a general fund the manager may dip into. The law requires a service charges account to be opened for each jointly owned property, at a bank licensed in the emirate and recognised by RERA, and what is collected must be paid into it within seven working days. Money in that account is protected from the management entity's own creditors, so if the managing company gets into trouble the building's money is not available to them. What it may be spent on is a closed list: cleaning the common parts; security and safety; operating, maintaining, repairing and improving the common parts and keeping them in good condition; the building's insurance premiums; the audit of the accounts and budgets; the management company's fees at the amount and in the manner RERA determines; a developer's approved administrative expenses on major projects; RERA's own inspection and oversight costs; costs set out in the master community declaration and approved by RERA; and building the cash reserve. The reserve is the part worth understanding. It exists to cover emergencies and to replace equipment in the common parts, it must sit in an account separate from the service charges account, and it may not be spent on anything other than a critical emergency without RERA's approval first. So a manager using the reserve to plug an ordinary shortfall is not making a judgement call, it is doing something the law does not permit without RERA agreeing. The owners committee can ask for the property's financial reports, which is where a concerned owner starts.
“creating a cash reserve to cover emergency expenses, or to replace equipment and devices in Common Parts, which must be deposited in an account separate from the Service Charges account and may not be disposed of for any purposes, other than in critical emergencies, without first obtaining the approval of RERA”
Source: Government of Dubai — Supreme Legislation Committee — Law No. (6) of 2019 Concerning Ownership of Jointly Owned Real Property in the Emirate of Dubai · Correct as of 24 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
Who actually runs your building
Buyers often expect to join an owners association that votes on budgets and hires the managing agent. In Dubai that is not how it works, and the law that changed it repealed the earlier statute outright. Jointly owned property is sorted into three categories. In a major project the developer is responsible for managing, operating, maintaining and repairing the common parts. In a hotel project the developer must outsource that to a hotel project management company, and an owners committee exists only if that company asks for one — and it is expressly not authorised to take part in managing the project or its common parts. Everything else falls into a third category, where the common parts are managed by a specialised management company that RERA itself selects and contracts. Committee members are selected or appointed by RERA rather than elected by the owners. What the committee may do is a closed list. It verifies that the management entity is doing its job; reviews the annual budgets, makes recommendations on them and can request the property's financial reports; raises problems with the management entity or RERA; receives complaints from owners and occupants, and escalates them to RERA if the management entity has not dealt with them within fourteen days; reports structural defects and damage needing urgent repair; and, in that third category only, can ask RERA to replace the management company and advise on choosing a new one. It can also propose changes to the building management regulation, though RERA must approve them. Running the building is not on that list.
“An Owners Committee will exclusively:”
Source: Government of Dubai — Supreme Legislation Committee — Law No. (6) of 2019 Concerning Ownership of Jointly Owned Real Property in the Emirate of Dubai · Correct as of 24 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
What unpaid service charges cost
Unpaid service charges attach to the property, and that is the fact a buyer and a seller both need. The management entity has a lien on every unit for the charges owed on it, and the law states plainly that a unit may not be disposed of unless those charges are paid. A sale does not move the problem on; it stops until the arrears are cleared. The enforcement route is set out. Where an owner does not pay, the management entity must ask for payment within thirty days of serving a written notice approved by RERA, and RERA decides how that notice is served. If the money is still unpaid the claim becomes enforceable by the execution judge at the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre, and where necessary that judge may order the unit sold at public auction to recover the charges. An owner who has defaulted also pays the court fees, costs and advocates' fees the judge awards. There is a protection running the other way, and it is worth knowing if pressure is being applied. A developer or management entity must not take action against an owner to stop them taking possession of or using their unit, or using the common parts and facilities, in order to force payment outside the procedures this law lays down. In other words the route above is the route, and being locked out of your own building is not part of it.
“The Management Entity will have a lien on every Unit for unpaid Service Charges in respect thereof. A Unit may not be disposed of unless these charges are paid to the Management Entity.”
Who to go to
RERA at the Dubai Land Department for the charges themselves and how a notice must be served, and the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre where a claim has reached enforcement. Whether a particular debt is properly owed is a matter for them, not for this card.
Source: Government of Dubai — Supreme Legislation Committee — Law No. (6) of 2019 Concerning Ownership of Jointly Owned Real Property in the Emirate of Dubai · Correct as of 24 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
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