A jointly owned property is a property in which there are individual owners who own their private units and common areas like the lobbies, elevators, parking areas pools are shared by all the owners. The Law No. 6 of 2019 Regulating Jointly Owned Property in Dubai governs the jointly owned property in UAE.

Three Types of Jointly Owned Projects

  1. Large Scale Projects – Large master communities and developments
  2. Hotel Projects – these include buildings with hotel units, or mixed-use projects containing hotel components.
  3. Other Real Estate Projects – These are ordinary residential or office buildings that do not fall into the first two categories.

Appointment of management company

In the previous law of 2007, there was an owner’s association that had to be formed there was an amendment in 2019 where the developers were asked to appoint a RERA-approved management company to manage the property.

This management company is responsible for:

  1. Maintenance,
  2. Operations,
  3. Service charge collection, and
  4. Day-to-day management of the building or community.

Owners Committees

Instead of an owner’s association the owners had to form a owners committee. The committee has only an advisory role and can have up to nine-unit owners. The members are selected by the RERA. This committee represents the collective interests of the owners.

Service Charges

  1. Service charges are fees paid by owners to the management entity to cover the day to day running and upkeeping of the shred areas within a building or jointly owned property.
  2. It covers the costs of a managing the common lobby corridors, elevators, shared facilities, and building infrastructure.
  3. It is calculated by the size one unit relative to the total size of the building. The bigger your unit, the higher your share.
  4. Service charge funds must be deposited into dedicated bank accounts approved by RERA.
  5. RERA supervises and approves service charge budgets.

Usage charges

  1. It is a fee that is paid to the master developer for looking after the shared areas of a large master community.
  2. It is mainly to cover the cost of properties that have huge gated communities and it covers the cost of maintaining and repairing the common areas of the community including the roads, shared landscaping central facilities etc.
  3. The Director General issues a resolution setting the calculation method, but it must stay within the rules of the approved Master Community.

Enforcement of Unpaid Service Charges: From Notice to Execution

The management companies cannot block the owners from using the common facilities to force them for the payment of the service charges.

Article 32 of the lays down the steps that must be followed if the owner fails to pay their share of service or usage charges and they are:

  1. The management entity or the master developers must first serve a RERA-approved written notice giving the owner 30 days to pay.
  2. If the payment has not been completed within that period them it can be taken to the execution judge at the Rent Disputes Settlement Centre (RDSC) without needing a full court trial.
  3. The execution judge has the power to, if necessary, order the unit to be sold in a public auction to recover the outstanding charges.
  4. The defaulting owner would be liable to pay the court fees, costs and advocates fees.
  5. This applies to the usage charges also which is owed to the master developers.

Responsibility of the RERA

RERA is responsible for:

  1. Approval & oversight: The RERA must approve all the service charges and usage charges before the management committee can collect from the owners.
  2. Governance & governance documents: If there is no Building Management Regulation that exist then RERA can issue one directly and ask a specialised company to draft it.
  3. Owners Committee administration: RERA appoints Owners Committee members, can reconstitute a committee at any time, and terminates memberships when eligibility requirements are no longer met.
  4. Banking & fund protection: RERA recognises the band in which the service charges accounts should be held and supervises and overseas how the funds are used.
  5. Enforcement support: RERS approves the written notice that should be given to the defaulting owners and determines how the notice is served.
  6. Fee & cost collection: RERA sets the Management Company’s fees and approves any costs incurred by the Developer for managing Major Projects from the Service Charges fund.

Conclusion

The introduction of Law No. 6 of 2019 brought significant changes to the regulation and management of jointly owned properties in Dubai. The law strengthened RERA’s supervisory role, introduced professional management companies, improved transparency in service charges, and established a clearer framework for dispute resolution.

We at Ayesha Aldhaheri Advocates and Legal Consultants, we assist clients with a wide range of real estate matters in the UAE, including jointly owned property regulations, service charge disputes, compliance matters, property management issues, and real estate advisory services.