Getting your security deposit back
Five per cent of the annual rent, handed over at signing, and then argued about a year later. Dubai's tenancy law says less about the deposit than either side assumes — two short articles, one clear obligation to refund, and no deadline at all. The gap between those two facts is where every deposit dispute lives.
The two articles that decide it
Article 20 of Law No. 26 of 2007 is the entire statutory basis for the deposit:
And Article 21 sets the standard the property must be handed back in:
Neither article was touched by Law No. 33 of 2008, which replaced Articles 2, 3, 4, 9, 13, 14, 15, 25, 26, 29 and 36. The 2007 text above is the text in force. (The "will must" is in the official English translation; we quote it as published.)
Three things follow from those two paragraphs, and they are the whole argument.
1. The deposit has a stated purpose, and it is narrow
Article 20 authorises a deposit "to ensure maintenance of the Real Property". That is what the money is for. It is not described as general security for everything you might ever owe the landlord — not unpaid rent, not the final DEWA bill, not the chiller account, not an "administration fee" for processing your own departure.
This does not make such deductions impossible — it moves where they have to come from. A landlord who wants to set your unpaid rent against the deposit is relying on your contract, or on a set-off of two separate debts, not on Article 20. So the first question on any deduction is which one it is: a condition-of-the-property claim, which Article 20 covers, or a money claim, which needs its own basis in the contract and its own proof. Ask for the clause. If the contract is silent and the deduction is not about the property's condition, it has nothing holding it up.
2. There is no refund deadline in the law
Article 20 says the landlord undertakes to refund "upon the expiry of the Lease Contract". It does not say within thirty days, or within ninety, and there is no provision anywhere in Law 26/2007 or Law 33/2008 imposing interest, a penalty, or an automatic forfeiture of the landlord's deductions for delay.
The widely repeated "the landlord must return it within 30 days" is not in the statute. It is a reasonable expectation and a common contract term, and it is worth writing into your contract — but if you are quoting a thirty-day rule at a landlord who is stalling, you are quoting something that does not exist, and a landlord's agent will know it.
What you actually have instead is better than it sounds: an unconditional obligation with no time limit is still an unconditional obligation. The remedy is not a deadline, it is Article 21's last sentence — the dispute goes to the Tribunal — plus the fact that the landlord bears the burden of justifying anything withheld. Time pressure has to be manufactured by you, in writing, which is what the sequence further down does.
3. Ordinary wear and tear is not yours to pay for
Article 21 carves out two exceptions from "the same condition in which the Tenant received it": ordinary wear and tear, and damage due to reasons beyond the Tenant's control. Two further articles push in the same direction:
- Article 16: unless otherwise agreed, the landlord is responsible during the term for the property's maintenance works and for repairing any defect or damage affecting the tenant's intended use. Note the "unless otherwise agreed" — many Dubai contracts shift minor repairs, typically under a stated figure such as AED 500 or 1,000, onto the tenant. That is permitted; check what yours says.
- Article 17: the landlord is responsible for any defect, damage, deficiency, and wear and tear occurring to the property for reasons not attributable to the fault of the Tenant. There is no "unless otherwise agreed" on that one.
So the dividing line is fault and ordinariness, not perfection. Living in a flat for two years leaves marks; the deposit does not fund a refurbishment.
| Commonly deducted | Where it actually sits |
|---|---|
| Repainting the whole apartment as standard | Ordinary wear and tear on a lived-in unit. A blanket repaint charge with no identified damage is the single most contested deduction, and the weakest. Specific damage — a wall you drilled out, a stain from something you spilled — is different and is chargeable. |
| Nail and screw holes from pictures and shelves | Ordinary use, and filling them is part of a normal repaint cycle. A wall opened up for a mounted TV or a fitted unit is a repair, not a hole. |
| AC servicing / filter cleaning at the end of the term | Article 16 maintenance, unless your contract expressly assigns AC servicing to you — which many do. If it does, keep the service receipts; if it does not, this is the landlord's cost. |
| Faded curtains, sun-bleached blinds, tired grout, aged silicone | Wear and tear and the passage of time. Not attributable to your fault under Article 17. |
| A worn-out appliance that failed during your tenancy | Article 16/17 unless you broke it. Age of the item matters, which is why the check-in report and its photographs decide these. |
| Deep cleaning | Contractual almost always, and usually enforceable if the clause is there. Cheaper to have the flat professionally cleaned yourself and keep the invoice than to have it deducted at the landlord's chosen rate. |
| Missing keys, access cards, remotes, parking fobs | Yours. Replacement cost is a real loss and the building charges a published rate for most of them. Count them at handover and get the count signed. |
| Damage you caused, or a change you made without permission | Yours. Article 19 requires the tenant to maintain the property as an ordinary person would maintain his own, and forbids changes, restoration or maintenance works without the landlord's permission and the required licences. Unpermitted work is the strongest deduction a landlord has. |
| Final DEWA bill, chiller/district cooling balance, Ejari or housing fee | Article 22: unless the contract states otherwise, government fees and taxes for use of the property are the tenant's. These are genuine liabilities — but settle them yourself and produce the zero-balance proof, rather than leaving them to be estimated out of your deposit. |
| "Administration", "processing" or "handover" fees | Nothing in the Law creates them. If they are not in your contract, they are an invitation to ask which clause they come from. |
The Article 23 trap: what you installed may no longer be yours to take
Article 23: unless otherwise agreed by the parties, upon vacating the property the tenant may not remove any leasehold improvements made by the tenant. The fitted wardrobe, the upgraded light fittings, the split unit in the study, the shelving screwed to the wall — installed with permission, they stay. Taking them out on the last day, and leaving the fixings behind, converts your own investment into the landlord's damage claim.
The way round it is the same as everything else here: agree it in writing before you install, or before you remove. "Unless otherwise agreed" is doing real work in that article.
The move-out sequence that gets the money paid
Deposit disputes are won in the first and last hour of the tenancy, not in the argument in between.
- Find the check-in evidence. Article 21 measures the flat against "the condition in which the Tenant received it" — so whoever can prove that condition controls the argument. A dated check-in report signed by both sides is ideal; a folder of photographs with camera timestamps from your first week is nearly as good; nothing at all means the discussion becomes the landlord's word against yours. If you are only just moving in, do this today.
- Close the utilities and keep the proof. Final DEWA settlement and refund of the DEWA deposit, chiller account closed, Ejari cancelled. Screenshots of zero balances kill three deductions before they are proposed. See DEWA move-out and Ejari cancellation.
- Do the small repairs yourself, with invoices. Anything genuinely yours — a cracked tile, a broken blind, a missing fob — is cheaper fixed by your own contractor than deducted at the landlord's. Keep the invoices; they are also evidence that you took the Article 19 obligation seriously.
- Insist on a joint inspection, and get it in writing. Walk the flat with the landlord or the agent, item by item, and leave with a signed check-out note listing every claimed defect. The point is not agreement — it is closing the list. A landlord who signs a note with three items on it cannot produce a fourth in six weeks.
- Hand over the keys against a receipt. Keys, cards, remotes, fobs, counted and listed on paper. Handing keys to a security guard or dropping them at reception is how "missing remote" claims are born.
- Ask for the refund in writing, with a date and an IBAN. One short email: contract reference, vacating date, deposit amount, deductions agreed at the inspection, net amount, your IBAN, and a specific date by which you expect the transfer. There is no statutory deadline, so name one yourself — fourteen or thirty days is normal — and make the record show you asked.
- If nothing arrives, serve a legal notice. Through a Notary Public or by registered mail, because proof of delivery is itself a filing document, and the Rental Disputes Centre requires one month to pass from receipt before a case can be registered. Most deposits are paid during that month.
Filing at the Rental Disputes Centre — and when it stops being worth it
Article 21 routes the dispute to the Tribunal, and Decree No. 26 of 2013 gives the RDC exclusive jurisdiction over Dubai rental disputes, free zones included. A withheld deposit is a monetary claim: the registration fee is 3.5% of the amount claimed, with a floor of AED 500 and a cap of AED 15,000, plus AED 10 knowledge, AED 10 innovation and AED 100 for serving the other party. The full mechanics — conciliation within 15 days, the 30-day judgment window, the document list — are in filing at the Rental Disputes Centre.
The floor is what matters at deposit scale. Because the AED 500 minimum applies to every claim below roughly AED 14,300, the cost of filing is close to flat while the amount at stake shrinks:
| Deposit withheld | Cost to file online | As a share of the claim |
|---|---|---|
| AED 2,000 | AED 620 | 31% |
| AED 5,000 | AED 620 | 12% |
| AED 10,000 | AED 620 | 6.2% |
| AED 20,000 | AED 820 | 4.1% |
| AED 50,000 | AED 1,870 | 3.7% |
Fees follow the outcome in the usual case — tribunals commonly order the losing party to bear them — so the table is the downside, not the expected cost. But it does mean the honest answer on a AED 2,000 deduction is that a documented legal notice is your real weapon and the filing is a bluff you should be willing to lose money on. Above roughly AED 10,000 the arithmetic changes completely, particularly where the landlord's case is a blanket repaint charge with no itemised damage.
One prerequisite people discover too late: no Ejari, no case. The Centre's document list starts with the tenancy contract registered with Ejari. An unregistered tenancy is a problem to fix before you need it, not after — and the tenant can register it.
The deposit your landlord holds is not the only one
Two separate sums, two separate refund processes, and conflating them wastes weeks. The landlord's security deposit — typically 5% of annual rent for an unfurnished unit, 10% furnished, as market practice rather than as law — is governed by Article 20 above. The DEWA security deposit is held by the utility, refunded against your final bill after you request account closure, and has nothing to do with the state of the walls. Chiller providers hold a third one. Close them in parallel, not in sequence.
Questions
How long does a landlord have to return the security deposit in Dubai?
The Law sets no deadline. Article 20 of Law 26/2007 obliges the landlord to refund the deposit or the remainder of it "upon the expiry of the Lease Contract", with no stated period, no interest and no penalty for delay. Thirty days is a common contract term and a reasonable expectation, but it is not a statutory rule. Where the contract is silent, set your own date in writing and use the one-month legal notice as the escalation.
Can a landlord deduct repainting from the deposit?
Not as a matter of course. Article 21 requires the property to be returned in the condition received "except for ordinary wear and tear", and Article 17 makes the landlord responsible for wear and tear not attributable to the tenant's fault. Marks from normal occupation fall on the landlord's side; identified damage — a drilled-out wall, a stain, a hole for a wall-mounted TV — is chargeable. Ask for the itemised damage and the invoice, not a percentage.
Can the deposit be used for unpaid rent or an unpaid DEWA bill?
Article 20 describes the deposit as security for maintenance of the property, so a rent or utility deduction rests on your contract or on a set-off of separate debts, not on Article 20 itself. Those debts may well be real — Article 22 makes government fees and taxes for use of the property the tenant's unless the contract says otherwise — but ask which clause authorises taking them out of the deposit, and settle utilities yourself with proof of a zero balance.
What if there was never a check-in report?
Then the burden of proving the original condition becomes a contest of assertions, and the party with dated photographs wins it. Photographs from your first week with camera metadata, the listing photographs from when you rented, the agent's own marketing images and any WhatsApp messages about defects at handover are all usable. Going forward, photograph the flat on day one of every tenancy and email the set to yourself the same day.
Can I take out the wardrobe or air conditioner I installed?
Not unless it was agreed. Article 23 provides that, unless otherwise agreed, the tenant may not remove leasehold improvements made by the tenant upon vacating. Removing them anyway turns your own improvement into a damage claim against your deposit. Agree removal in writing — ideally before you install, otherwise before you take it out.
Does the landlord have to pay interest on a deposit held too long?
Nothing in Law 26/2007 or Law 33/2008 provides for interest on a security deposit, and there is no automatic forfeiture of deductions for delay. A claim before the Tribunal is a claim for the sum withheld, with the case fees commonly ordered against the losing party; treat any interest or compensation element as something to be argued and proved rather than as an entitlement.
Is the deposit 5% of the rent by law?
No. Article 20 permits a deposit without setting an amount. Five per cent of annual rent unfurnished and ten per cent furnished are market conventions in Dubai, not statutory figures, and the amount is whatever your contract says.
The landlord is withholding the deposit and I have already left the country — can I still claim?
Yes. Registration at the Rental Disputes Centre is online, scanned documents are accepted, and an account is free to open. A representative acting for you needs a registered power of attorney (AED 25 registration). The practical constraints are the one-month legal notice that must be served and shown as delivered, and the requirement that the tenancy was registered with Ejari.
Sources
- Law No. (26) of 2007 Regulating the Relationship between Landlords and Tenants in the Emirate of Dubai — Articles 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 (unamended 2007 text), official English text, Dubai Legislation Portal
- Law No. (33) of 2008 Amending Law No. (26) of 2007 — Article 1 lists the superseded articles (2, 3, 4, 9, 13, 14, 15, 25, 26, 29, 36); Articles 16–23 are not among them, official English text, Dubai Legislation Portal
- Decree No. (26) of 2013 Establishing the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre in the Emirate of Dubai — jurisdiction over rental disputes, official English text, Dubai Legislation Portal
- Rental Disputes Centre — published fee schedule, document list and case procedure, rdc.gov.ae FAQ · about the Centre
- Leasing a property in the UAE — u.ae, official UAE Government portal
Verified 24 August 2026 against the official English texts of Law 26/2007 and Law 33/2008 published by the Dubai Legislation Portal, and against the Rental Disputes Centre fee schedule. The absence of a statutory refund deadline, of interest and of any prescribed deposit percentage is stated because no such provision appears in either instrument — the frequently repeated "30 days" and "5% by law" are contract practice and market convention. The 5%/10% deposit conventions and the minor-repair thresholds in tenancy contracts are described as market practice for the same reason. General information, not legal advice.
Related
- Filing at the Rental Disputes Centre — the monetary-claim fee, the one-month notice, the 15-day conciliation and the 30-day judgment window.
- Leaving a tenancy early — where the deposit sits in a negotiated exit, alongside advance rent and the cheques.
- Eviction under Article 25 — the other end of the same statute, when it is the landlord who wants you out.
- DEWA move-out and deposit refund — the utility deposit, refunded by a different party on a different clock.
- Ejari: register, renew, cancel — no Ejari, no case at the Centre.
- Service charges: owner or tenant? — Article 16(b) makes it the owner's unless your lease says otherwise, and the owner is never released if you do not pay.
- RERA Rent Increase Calculator — the number behind the renewal you may be leaving instead.