# Laws on short term lease of apartments for holidaymakers?



## Yoga girl (Oct 19, 2008)

Does anyone know what the law says about letting a flat in a residential complex for short term stays and in particular to tourists?

We have noticed an increased number of flats are being let out for 1 or 2 weeks where I live and we wondered whether this is acutally allowed by Dubai laws?

Since some of these temporary visitors are creating some problems we wanted to bring it up at the next meeting of the owners but we want to know where we stand.

Any feedback on this would be much appreciated.


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## maxd (Mar 22, 2009)

Yoga girl said:


> Does anyone know what the law says about letting a flat in a residential complex for short term stays and in particular to tourists?
> 
> We have noticed an increased number of flats are being let out for 1 or 2 weeks where I live and we wondered whether this is acutally allowed by Dubai laws?
> 
> ...


Subletting is legal only with the permission of the landlord. There is no provision in Dubai law for disallowing short lets. Maybe you can make some community law but I believe in property rights, you should be able to make money from real estate that you own. A far more sensible approach would be for you to approach the landlord and ask him to stick up some rules for his guests to follow, so they understand how to respect other residents.

It could be possible that the landlord is letting out himself or the illegal part could be someone subletting without his permission but that is more of a deal between the LL and tenant. The Police will not be interested.

This is actually my business and I have looked into the local laws. I am looking to take a few floors of a dubai tower for short lets.


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## Yoga girl (Oct 19, 2008)

maxd said:


> Subletting is legal only with the permission of the landlord. There is no provision in Dubai law for disallowing short lets. Maybe you can make some community law but I believe in property rights, you should be able to make money from real estate that you own. A far more sensible approach would be for you to approach the landlord and ask him to stick up some rules for his guests to follow, so they understand how to respect other residents.
> 
> It could be possible that the landlord is letting out himself or the illegal part could be someone subletting without his permission but that is more of a deal between the LL and tenant. The Police will not be interested.
> 
> This is actually my business and I have looked into the local laws. I am looking to take a few floors of a dubai tower for short lets.


Thanks for the info. The sublets are being done through online websites and our community rules clearly state that even landlords are not allowed to rent for terms shorter than 6 months. 

I have also been told that there was a recent article in Gulf News that said that in order for short term leases to be valid the person leasing should hold a valid trade license. Do you know anything about this??

We are still looking into all this to see where we stand. Some of my neighbours are not tenants but they own their own flats here and are not happy with what is going on.... We'll see what happens.


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## maxd (Mar 22, 2009)

Yoga girl said:


> Thanks for the info. The sublets are being done through online websites and our community rules clearly state that even landlords are not allowed to rent for terms shorter than 6 months.
> 
> I have also been told that there was a recent article in Gulf News that said that in order for short term leases to be valid the person leasing should hold a valid trade license. Do you know anything about this??
> 
> We are still looking into all this to see where we stand. Some of my neighbours are not tenants but they own their own flats here and are not happy with what is going on.... We'll see what happens.



I have no idea knowing what their contract is with the agency renting out. If done properly they could have an agreement with a company who is allowed to do real estate. In that case they are breaking no state laws, only your community laws. You should take it up with your community to see if the majority of people want to regulate it.


I suspect they are just renting out to make some additional income and have no licence whatsoever.

Has anything really serious happened or is it just grumbling neighbours with nothing better to do.

As I say, instead of making trouble for the landlords, speak to them about standards to be respected. Sometimes people are just not aware how they should behave.


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## Canuck_Sens (Nov 16, 2010)

The Real Estate is so bad in Dubai and with more buildings coming along...really these events are not coming as a surprise.

For a market that is still under correction mode; in fact, prices will stumble further and with the number of empty units, there is no wonder that landlords or tenants will be enticed to sublet.

And trust me when the market is gloomy, they might change the law to allow the sublets legally as they did with the VISA motto "buy a property and get a VISA"


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## Yoga girl (Oct 19, 2008)

maxd said:


> I have no idea knowing what their contract is with the agency renting out. If done properly they could have an agreement with a company who is allowed to do real estate. In that case they are breaking no state laws, only your community laws. You should take it up with your community to see if the majority of people want to regulate it.
> 
> 
> I suspect they are just renting out to make some additional income and have no licence whatsoever.
> ...


Well we seem to have a "working girl" trying to get customers in the pool area... that's when the rumblings turned into something a bit more serious 
It has been taken up at the meeting but the first step is identifying exactly which flats are being leased short term.
Anyhow, thanks for the info. I'm sure it will all get sorted eventually.


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## Jumeirah Jim (Jan 24, 2011)

I expect that you need both a trade licence and a licence from the DTCM to operate a serviced apartment and I expect its doubtful this owner has either licence.

If the owner is causing a nuisance to others in the block then I expect a complaint to DM or the DTCM should soon cause them some issues!


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## Jynxgirl (Nov 27, 2009)

Ahhh Yoga I hope you get that sorted. We have a few of those girls living in our building and makes it very uncomfortable here. Seems the guys think any girl walking alone in our building, is one because of the girl they walked in the building with..... : ( Good luck!


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