Ejari: register, renew, cancel

Why registration is not optional

Article 4(2) of Law 26/2007 requires all lease contracts subject to the law to be registered with RERA. That is not a formality with no teeth: an unregistered contract leaves you without the document that every other counter asks for.

• DEWA will not activate a new account without it — see switching DEWA on in a new home.
• The 5% housing fee is calculated from the rent on the Ejari record. A stale or missing registration is exactly how people end up with months of backdated housing fee on one bill.
• Visa sponsorship for a spouse or children, and many school and licensing applications, require it as proof of address.
• The Rental Disputes Centre lists the Ejari-registered contract as a required document for filing a case. No registration, no case — see filing at the RDC.
• The Smart Rental Index is built from registered rents. Your building's benchmark — and therefore the increase your landlord may legally ask for — comes from this data.

What it costs

Registration and renewal carry the same government charge. The published totals by channel:

Who pays? The law does not hand the bill to either side by default; it is a matter of the contract and local practice, and in most Dubai tenancies the tenant pays. If your agent quotes AED 500 for "Ejari", they are quoting their service, not the government fee — the self-service route on Dubai REST is the same registration for AED 177.75.

Registering: documents and route

The registration is filed by the landlord, or started by the tenant and approved by the landlord from their own account. What you need:

• The signed tenancy contract (the unified DLD form is the smoothest path)
• Tenant's Emirates ID, and passport with residence visa page
• Landlord's passport copy and the title deed — or the management contract and licence if an agency acts for the owner
• The DEWA premise number or Dubai Municipality premises number for the unit
• Recent DEWA bill for the property, where available

Route: Dubai REST → sign in with UAE Pass or Emirates ID → Services → RERA / Ejari → Register Ejari → upload contract and documents → pay by card, Noqodi or net banking. The certificate is issued electronically with an Ejari contract number; that number, not the paper, is what other agencies look up.

The premise number is the usual failure point. It is on any DEWA bill for the unit and it must match the physical apartment — a number copied from the wrong unit in the same building will pass upload and fail later, at exactly the moment you need the certificate.

Renewing

Ejari runs for the contract term, so an annual tenancy needs an annual renewal. It is the same fee and effectively the same process against the new contract, and it should be done as soon as the renewal is signed rather than when something forces the issue.

Two things ride on doing it promptly:

• A rent change only becomes the official rent once it is registered. If you negotiated the rent down at renewal and Ejari still shows last year's figure, the housing fee keeps billing against the old, higher rent — and getting that back means an adjustment request rather than an automatic correction.
• Your index position depends on it. The registered rent is what the Smart Rental Index sees, and what next year's permitted increase is measured against.

Cancelling — the step everyone forgets

Ejari does not expire quietly when you move out. The registration stays open against the unit, and an open registration blocks the next tenancy from being registered, keeps the address attached to you, and creates a mess when a new tenant tries to open DEWA.

Cancellation is required when a lease ends without renewal, when it is terminated early by agreement, when the property changes hands, or when you move to another unit in Dubai. What it needs:

1. Close DEWA first. The cancellation requires the final DEWA bill showing a zero balance and marked as a final bill or closed account. The account closure sequence is in the move-out guide — start it two working days before you hand back the keys.
2. Get the landlord's NOC confirming vacancy, with the unit details and DEWA premise number on it.
3. File in Dubai REST — Services → RERA / Ejari → find the active contract → request cancellation → upload the NOC and the final DEWA bill. A trustee centre will do it over the counter instead.
4. Keep the confirmation. It is the proof the tenancy closed on your side, and it is what you show if a housing fee or a utility charge keeps appearing.

Straightforward cancellations typically clear immediately or within a few working days, and the online route is usually free of charge.

Early termination

Leaving before the contract ends is a contractual matter, not an Ejari one: whatever penalty clause you signed — commonly one to two months' rent, sometimes with a notice period — governs the money. Ejari cancellation is the administrative step that follows once the landlord agrees to the termination in writing. Get that agreement in writing first; without it you have neither the NOC nor a clean exit from the registration.