Ejari renewal: what it costs and what it unlocks

CHECKED 28 SEP 2026

Ejari is the registration of a Dubai tenancy contract with RERA. It is the document nobody thinks about until something else is blocked by it — a DEWA connection, a family visa, an establishment card. This is what it actually requires, what it costs, and one thing about it that almost every article gets wrong.

What it is, and the law behind it

Ejari is run by RERA, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, within the Dubai Land Department. The requirement comes from Law No. 26 of 2007 as amended by Law No. 33 of 2008: all lease contracts governed by the law, and any amendments to them, are to be registered with RERA. Registration has been mandatory for Dubai rental contracts since 14 March 2010.

The same article carries the sentence that matters most: judicial authorities and government departments may not consider any dispute or claim, or take any action, relating to a lease contract unless it is registered with RERA.

There is no fine for not doing it — and that is the point people miss

This is the claim to be careful about, because plenty of sites state a penalty. RERA's own fee and fine schedule — Executive Council Resolution No. 25 of 2009 — lists twenty violations with fines from AED 50,000 upwards. Failure to register a lease contract is not one of them. Neither Law 26 of 2007 nor Law 33 of 2008 contains a penalty article for non-registration.

What happens instead is worse in practice than a fine. Without registration the contract does not exist as far as the courts and government departments are concerned, and the services that sit on top of it simply cannot proceed. There is no fine because there is no need for one.

For the same reason, no official deadline or grace period for filing a renewal is published anywhere. Anyone quoting one is inventing it.

Whose job it is

The statute is written passively and names nobody. In practice the duty sits with the landlord: the Land Department's tenancy guide lists among the landlord's undertakings that they authenticate the lease contract at RERA and present the documents and tenant information for each contract, lease or renewal.

But the Land Department's own online service turns that around: the applicant must be the tenant, or a legal representative holding an official power of attorney. A property management company can register on the landlord's behalf only if it is licensed for property management, and its authority comes from a management contract that is itself registered in Ejari.

So if you are a tenant waiting for a landlord to do it, you can usually do it yourself — which for a company waiting on an establishment card is normally the faster answer.

What it costs and how long it takes

AED 177.75 in total through the Dubai Land Department website or the Dubai REST app.
AED 220 at a Real Estate Services Trustee Centre, where the transaction takes about 25 minutes excluding waiting.
The fee and the process are identical for a first registration and a renewal.
The app route requires that the tenant and landlord are both individuals and the owner's data is up to date. The trustee centre route requires that the property is not managed by a real estate company or by an owner who already has Ejari system access.

What you need to bring

The Land Department publishes one document list covering both registration and renewal — there is no separate renewal list, whatever you may read elsewhere. Through the app or website: a copy of the Unified Tenancy Contract. At a trustee centre: the original Unified Tenancy Contract, the applicant's Emirates ID, and the power of attorney if the applicant is a representative.

The wider list in the Land Department's tenancy guide adds, for registration at a typing or trustee centre, the last month's DEWA invoice in the tenant's name, a copy of the title deed, the tenant's passport for an individual — and, where the tenant is a company, a copy of the trade licence. The original contract matters: the guide states that without it, the transaction is not accepted.

Renewal, and the year that renews itself

Registration attaches to the contract term rather than to the calendar. Terms can run from under a year to a maximum of ten, and a renewal can be logged before the contract expires. Because most Dubai tenancies are annual, in practice this means registering again every year — but that is a consequence of the contract length, not a rule.

The law also renews the tenancy on its own: where a term expires and the tenant stays on without objection from the landlord, the contract is renewed for the same term or one year, whichever is shorter, on the same terms as before. Either party wanting not to renew, or wanting to change the terms, must give the other at least 90 days' notice before expiry.

That ninety days is the date worth tracking. It falls well before the expiry itself, and it is the point at which a rent increase or a non-renewal stops being a surprise.

Commercial and office tenancies

The law covers business premises as well as homes: it applies to property leased for accommodation or for conducting a business activity, trade or profession, excluding hotels and free employee accommodation.

Two things are specific to a company tenant. The trade licence is an additional document, and the address on the licence has to match the lease. Registration checks also verify that the building's licensed use and the area designation — residential, commercial, industrial — match what the lease is for.

Two things cannot go into Ejari at all: a sub-lease between one tenant and another, and a long land lease taken for construction or investment, which is treated as a musataha rather than a lease and is registered on the Real Property Register instead, at 4 per cent of the contract value.

Ejari also records why a commercial tenancy ended, with published grounds including an expired contract, cancellation or freezing of the trade licence, relocation of the company, and an order from the Rental Disputes Centre.

What Ejari is officially needed for

DEWA move-in: officially required. The Land Department states that all customers must obtain Ejari for the DEWA move-in service.
Family sponsorship at GDRFA Dubai: officially required. The document list asks for an attested lease contract issued by Ejari, or proof of property ownership from the Land Department.
A MOHRE establishment card: a valid rental contract is officially required, although MOHRE does not use the word Ejari.
Any dispute or government action on the lease itself: officially required, under Article 4.
Trade licence renewal: commonly claimed, not officially confirmed. No Land Department or Dubai Government page states it as a condition, and the Economy and Tourism page could not be verified. Treat a valid registered tenancy as standard practice rather than as a cited rule.

SOURCES

UAE fees and fines change. This guide is general information checked on the date above, not legal advice — confirm current figures with the authority before acting on them.