Your Landlord's Contract Is in Arabic. You Signed It Anyway.

You found the apartment. You negotiated the price. The agent handed you a stack of papers, half in English, half in Arabic. You read the English side, skimmed the rest, and signed.

Everyone does this. And for most people, it is fine, until it is not.

The part nobody mentions at the viewing

In the UAE, when a contract is written in both Arabic and English, the Arabic version is the one that counts in court. Not the English. Not “whichever you signed first.” The Arabic text.

This is settled law. If you ever end up at the Rental Dispute Settlement Centre (RDC), and plenty of tenants do. The judge reads the Arabic. Your English version is a courtesy translation at that point.

Most of the time, the two versions say the same thing. But “most of the time” is not “always.”

Where the differences tend to hide

The discrepancies are not in the obvious parts. Your rent amount is the same in both languages. Your name is the same. The address is the same.

The gaps show up in the clauses you do not think to question:

• Early termination penalty. The English might say “two months’ rent.” The Arabic might say “two months’ rent plus forfeiture of security deposit.” That is a difference of several thousand dirhams.
• Maintenance responsibility. Who fixes the AC? The English version might be vague. The Arabic often specifies a threshold, minor repairs below a certain amount are yours, above that are the landlord’s.
• Rent increase notice period. Your English version says 90 days. The Arabic says 60. When your landlord sends a rent increase letter on day 75, you think you are safe. You are not.
• Security deposit return conditions. The English says “upon vacating.” The Arabic adds “after inspection and deduction for damages as assessed by the landlord.” That second part changes everything.

None of these are hypothetical. These come up at RERA and RDC hearings regularly.

It is not that landlords are hiding things

Usually, the discrepancies come from the contract template itself. Many Dubai tenancy contracts are generated by typing centers or property management companies using standard Arabic templates. The English version gets added alongside, sometimes carefully, sometimes not.

Nobody is trying to trick you. But nobody is checking that both versions match perfectly either. That is on you.

What you can actually do about it

If you have not signed yet: Get the Arabic portion translated before you commit. Yes, it adds a day. But you are about to hand over tens of thousands of dirhams in post-dated cheques. A translation takes an hour for a standard contract. WhatsApp us for a quote.

If you already signed: You can still get it translated now. It will not change what you agreed to. But it tells you exactly what you agreed to. If something in there is a problem, you will know before it becomes a dispute, not during one.

If you are renewing: Your landlord may have updated the Arabic template without changing the English. Renewals are the most common place for silent changes. Worth checking before you sign the renewal papers. If a RERA dispute comes up later, the Arabic text is what the adjudicator reads, not the English.

The Ejari angle

When you register your lease with Ejari, the system records the contract details. If there is ever a dispute, RERA pulls the Ejari-registered version. That version is based on the Arabic text. Name transliteration differences between your passport and Ejari can also block your DEWA application entirely.

Even if you have operated based on the English version for the past year, the system has run on the Arabic version the whole time.

A five-minute decision that prevents a five-month headache

Getting the Arabic side of your tenancy contract translated is not a big project. It is one document. For a standard Dubai lease agreement, the turnaround is usually within the hour.

If you are not sure what is in yours, send it over on WhatsApp: +971 50 862 0217. We will look at it and tell you whether the two versions match before you pay anything.