Renewing a tenancy contract and Ejari

Check this first

Fees and procedures change without notice. Before you act on anything below, confirm it at the Dubai Land Department, which is the authority that actually handles this.

The short version

• Where: Ejari through the Dubai REST app or a typing centre. Tawtheeq in Abu Dhabi.
• Cost: About AED 178 registered online through Dubai REST, or about AED 220 at a trustee centre, plus the rent itself. Older articles still quote AED 120; that figure is out of date.
• Takes: Ejari registration is same day.
• If you are late: No fine, but missing the notice deadline locks you into the landlord’s terms.
• Valid for: 1 year.

The steps

1. A landlord must give 90 days notice of a rent increase. When that notice lands, check the RERA rent calculator.
2. Decide whether to renew or move well before the notice deadline in your contract.
3. If the proposed increase is above the legal cap, negotiate using the RERA index. The cap is 0, 5, 10, 15 or 20 percent, depending on how far below the market rate your current rent sits.
4. Re-register the contract afterwards. Utilities, visas and school registration all depend on a current Ejari.

The part people get wrong

Watching the wrong date. The expiry is not the deadline that decides what you pay. The 90 day notice window is, and by the time the contract actually expires every useful option has closed.

The other one is treating Ejari as paperwork. It is not: a lapsed Ejari blocks DEWA, visa applications and school registration, and people discover this at the exact moment they need one of those things.

Track it so you never read this page twice

Expyr photographs the document, reads the expiry date, and reminds you weeks ahead rather than the day before. It carries these same steps, the typical cost and the late fine, and opens the right portal for you. It is free for five items.