Landlord or tenant — who pays for which repairs?

Ask around and you will get a confident answer either way. The honest position is that there is a general principle, that your tenancy contract can modify it, and that most disputes are not about the principle at all — they are about what actually happened.

Read this as practical experience, not legal advice. Tenancy obligations in Dubai are governed by the applicable tenancy law and by the contract you signed, and the detail matters. Check your own contract, and check the current rules or take professional advice before relying on any general statement — including this one.

The general principle

Broadly, and subject to your contract:

• The owner is responsible for the property itself and for keeping it fit to live in — the structure, the installed systems, and failures from age or ordinary use.
• The tenant is responsible for day-to-day upkeep and for anything caused by damage, misuse or neglect.

So a water heater that fails after eight years is usually the owner’s. A water heater that fails because something was done to it is usually not.

Many Dubai tenancy contracts also set a threshold: repairs under a stated amount are the tenant’s, and anything above it goes to the owner. If yours has one, that figure is doing more work than any general principle, and it is the first thing to look for.

How it usually falls in practice

Usually the owner’s

• AC compressor, major component failures, chilled-water system faults
• Water heater failure and replacement
• Leaks inside walls, ceilings or slabs
• Distribution board faults and fixed wiring
• Anything structural, and anything that makes the property unfit to live in
• Defects that were there when you moved in

Usually the tenant’s

• AC filter cleaning and routine servicing, where the contract says so
• Blockages caused by what went down the drain
• Light bulbs and consumables
• Breakages, damage and anything a guest did
• Changes you made, and putting them back

It depends

• Routine AC servicing — commonly the tenant’s in Dubai contracts, but far from universal
• Pest control — often the tenant’s during a tenancy, often the owner’s if it originates in the building
• Appliances — depends on whether they were provided with the property

The argument is almost never about the rule

In our experience, when a landlord and tenant disagree, it is very rarely because they read the law differently. It is because they do not agree on what happened.

Was the drain blocked by wear or by what went into it? Was the heater dying anyway, or did something cause it? Was the stain there at move-in?

Which is why the useful thing is not a better argument. It is a better record.

What actually settles it

1. Your move-in inspection report. If you have one, it is the baseline. A surprising number of claimed damages turn out to be on it.

2. Photographs with dates. At move-in, when a problem appears, and after any repair.

3. A written diagnosis from whoever attended. Not an invoice saying “plumbing works” — a description of what was found and why it failed. That is the document that answers the question both parties are actually arguing about.

This is the main reason every job we complete comes with a photo report: not because photographs are nice to have, but because the alternative is two people remembering differently six months later. Our plumbing and AC pages both describe what you get.

4. Written approval before work starts. If you expect the owner to pay, get agreement first. An unapproved invoice is the single most common reason a tenant ends up paying for something that was never theirs.

Practical advice for tenants

• Report problems in writing, promptly, and keep the thread. A problem you reported and nobody acted on is a different conversation from one you mentioned verbally.
• Do not authorise work you expect someone else to pay for.
• Do not let something small become something large. A dripping tap is cheap; the damage from ignoring a leak is not, and a tenant who did not report it may carry some of it.
• Keep every receipt.

Practical advice for owners

• Decide quickly. Most disputes grow out of silence rather than refusal.
• Use one contractor you trust, and insist on documented diagnosis. It protects you as much as the tenant.
• Put the arrangement in the contract. A clear threshold prevents most arguments before they start.
• Fix the small things. The alternative is a tenant who stops reporting anything at all, which is how you find out about a leak when the ceiling comes down.

If you cannot agree

Dubai has a formal process for rental disputes, administered through the Dubai Land Department. It exists and it is used. Before it gets that far, though, most disagreements are resolvable with a documented diagnosis and a quote — which is a great deal cheaper for everyone than a filing.

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Need the facts established rather than argued about? Tell us what has happened — you will get a written diagnosis, a quote before anything starts, and photographs afterwards that either party can rely on.