Property owners in Dubai who haven’t paid their service charges cannot get their ‘Ejari’ rental contracts renewed, as the first verdicts get delivered by the Rental Disputes Centre (RDC). This comes as more cases pile up before the RDC on unpaid service charge fees, with multiple instances of non-payment over several years.

Without an Ejari certificate, the property cannot be leased and, by extension, it cannot have access to electricity and water connections. At this stage, the verdicts do not stipulate a seizure of the property if the service charges remain unpaid but, by not being able to get their rental contracts renewed, the authorities expect to pile on enough pressure to get the property owners to pay up.

The Rental Disputes Centre was assigned the responsibility of settling service fee disputes after a massive spike in unpaid claims all throughout this year. Property management companies have been repeating the claim that all these dues get in the way of ensuring quality services are delivered and that this is hurting the property market.