Your service charge is calculated on an area larger than your apartment. The invoice says so itself.

What a service charge legally is

Article 2 of Law No. 6 of 2019 defines Service Charges as "the annual charges collected from Owners to cover the cost of management, operation, maintenance, and repair of Jointly Owned Real Property", and Usage Charges as "the annual charges collected from Owners or Sub-developers in return for the management, operation, maintenance, and repair of Common Facilities". Two different charges, two different accounts, two different payees — the service charge goes to whoever manages your building, the usage charge goes to the master developer of the wider community.

Article 25(a) sets the share: an owner pays "his share of the annual Service Charges", calculated "based on ratio of the area of the Owner's Unit to the total area of the Jointly Owned Real Property". Article 25(b) then fixes the input — the share "will be calculated based on the area of his Unit as recorded in the Real Property Register".

Article 25(a) also disposes of a common assumption about empty units. A developer pays the service charge on unsold units, and on sold units where the sale contract or reservation agreement obliges him to pay on the purchaser's behalf. A unit that is vacant, unlet, or unhandled still accrues.

The two areas on the invoice

A service charge tax invoice generated by Mollak sets out its own arithmetic in an INFORMATION block near the foot of the page. Read literally, it says:

The Applicable Area is the larger of the two. It is the figure that carries your share of the common parts; the Suite Area is closer to the space behind your own front door. So the recurring charge that funds the building is levied on an area that includes a slice of the lobby, the corridors and the plant rooms, while the cooling charge — a service consumed inside your own walls — is levied on the smaller number.

That is coherent as a design. It is also worth checking, because the two figures are printed side by side at the top of the invoice and an error in either propagates straight through every line below. If your Applicable Area looks wrong, Article 25(b) is the provision to quote: the share is calculated on the area of the unit as recorded in the Real Property Register, which is a document you can obtain and compare.

How the rate is built

The general fund rate on a Mollak invoice is not one number. It is a sum of named components — services, maintenance, utilities, management, insurance and the master community contribution — each expressed in AED per square foot, adding to a General Fund Rate. The Reserve Fund Rate is stated separately and added to give a Total Rate. Below that, an INVOICE DETAILS table repeats every individual cost line at its own per-square-foot rate with a net amount, a VAT amount and a total: cleaning, security, waste management, pest control, MEP maintenance, professional fees, bank charges, government entity fees, and so on.

Two practical consequences. First, an invoice that shows only a lump sum is not the Mollak format — the itemisation is the point of the system. Second, the invoice carries a TRN and applies VAT line by line, with a Total VAT figure of its own; the frequently repeated claim that Dubai service charges are simply outside VAT is not what the invoices show.

Nothing is collectable until RERA approves it

This is the provision most owners have never read, and it is the strongest one they have. Article 27(a):

Article 27(b) adds the gate behind the gate: RERA "may not approve or ratify the Service Charges or Usage Charges budget unless it is approved by a certified audit firm recognised by RERA for this purpose". So the chain runs budget → external audit → RERA approval → collectable invoice, and a link missing anywhere in it means the amount is not payable. Article 27(c) allows RERA to approve a temporary budget where necessary until the audited one is approved — which is why some invoices are headed "Provisional Service Charge" and carry a note that the approval "is subject of final approval" and any adjustment will show up on the final one.

The Dubai Land Department's own e-service for management companies confirms what the file has to contain: a detailed annual budget statement, proposals and evaluations from a minimum of three tenders per service, copies of the service, maintenance, management, insurance and utility contracts, and an external financial audit report from a RERA-accredited auditor. The service is free and quoted at 25 minutes. Three competing quotes per service line is a requirement, not best practice.

The ten things the money may be spent on

Article 30 requires the management entity to open a service charges account for each jointly owned property with a bank licensed in Dubai and recognised by RERA, and to deposit what it collects there within seven working days of collection. Article 30(c) protects the balance: it "may not, for any reason whatsoever, be subject to attachment in favour of the Management Entity creditors" — if your management company goes under, its creditors cannot reach your building's float.

Article 30(e) then says the funds "may only be used for the following purposes", and the list is closed:

1. cleaning services for the common parts;
2. security and safety services;
3. operation, maintenance, repair and improvement of the common parts and their fixtures, fittings and installations, and keeping them in good condition;
4. the property's insurance premiums;
5. audit fees for the accounts and budgets of the service charges account;
6. the management company's fees, "as per the amount and method of payment determined by RERA";
7. the developer's administrative expenses on major projects, as approved by RERA;
8. the cash reserve for emergencies and equipment replacement;
9. RERA's fees or costs for inspecting and overseeing the management of the property; and
10. any other costs set out in the master community declaration and approved by RERA.

Item 6 deserves a second look. The management company's own fee is not a matter between the management company and itself — the amount and the method of payment are determined by RERA. Item 8 carries its own lock: the reserve "must be deposited in an account separate from the Service Charges account and may not be disposed of for any purposes, other than in critical emergencies, without first obtaining the approval of RERA". A reserve fund raided for routine operating costs is not a budgeting decision; it is outside Article 30(e)(8).

Article 30(f) closes the loop honestly in the other direction: where the reserve is not enough to cover an emergency, the DLD may — with RERA's prior approval — ask owners to cover it. Special levies exist, but they run through RERA rather than through a management company's letter.

Article 41 is the reason the insurance line is on your invoice at all. The management entity must insure the building for maintenance and reconstruction against fire, damage or destruction "for any reason whatsoever", and separately against liability for damage and bodily injury to occupants and third parties. Premiums "will be included in the Service Charges".

If you do not pay

Article 28 removes the two arguments owners most often try: an owner "may not refrain from paying the Service Charges or Usage Charges approved by RERA", and "may not waive his interest in Common Parts to avoid paying the charges due from him". You cannot renounce the pool to stop paying for the pool.

Article 32 sets out what happens next, and it is unusually fast:

• 32(a) — the management entity has a lien on the unit for unpaid service charges, and "a Unit may not be disposed of unless these charges are paid". This is why an unpaid balance surfaces at the point of sale: the transfer stops.
• 32(b) — on default, the management entity must demand payment within thirty days of serving a written notice in a form approved by RERA. If the thirty days pass, the claim "will be enforceable by the execution judge at the RDSC" — the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre — under the RDSC's own rules. There is no ordinary trial first.
• 32(c) — where necessary the execution judge "may order that a Unit … is sold by public auction to collect these charges".
• 32(d) — the defaulting owner pays the court fees, costs and advocates' fees the judge awards.
• 32(f) — the same machinery applies to usage charges owed to master developers.

Article 32(e) leaves the method of service of that notice to RERA, which matters: a demand that did not go out the way RERA prescribes has not started the thirty days.

The line the building cannot cross

Article 29, in full:

Deactivating an access card, barring the parking barrier, refusing a move-in permit, cutting off a facility — these are the informal collection tools, and Article 29 addresses them directly. The lawful route is the one Article 32 describes: the RERA-approved notice, thirty days, then the execution judge. Self-help is not on the list.

Note the phrase "in contravention of the procedures stipulated in this Law". The prohibition attaches to pressure applied outside the statutory route, not to the consequences of the route itself. An auction ordered by the execution judge under Article 32(c) is the procedure working; a disabled fob in month two is not.

Owners associations no longer exist

Law No. 6 of 2019 was issued on 4 September 2019 and came into force sixty days after publication. It repealed Law No. 27 of 2007 outright (Article 51(a)), and Article 49 transferred "all rights and obligations of Owners Associations, arising before the effective date of this Law" to management entities. The owners association as a body that hires and fires is gone. What replaced it is narrower, and it is worth knowing exactly how narrow before you take a seat on it.

Article 18(a) sorts every jointly owned property into three categories, and the category decides who manages it:

Article 22 sets the committee's shape: a maximum of nine members, appointed by RERA, constituted once at least 10% of the units are registered in owners' names on the Real Property Register. A member must have full legal capacity, be an owner residing in the building, be of good character and repute, be paying their own service and usage charges, and actually attend and participate. A developer can sit on it only while holding unsold units. RERA may reconstitute the committee at any time.

Article 23 requires meetings every three months — four a year, the first within thirty days of constitution — valid on a majority with the chairman or vice chairman present. And Article 23(c) is the one that surprises large owners: each member has one vote, "whether he owns one (1) Unit or multiple Units". Buying floors does not buy votes.

Article 24 lists what the committee does, and prefaces it with "will exclusively" — verify the management entity's performance; review the annual budgets and request the financial reports; discuss obstacles and recommend; receive owners' complaints, pass them to the management entity, and escalate to RERA if they are not addressed within fourteen days; notify structural defects; coordinate on safety and environmental matters; propose amendments to the building management regulation for RERA approval; and — the only real power — request RERA to replace the management entity, and advise on the successor.

Read that last item with Article 18(a): the replacement power is written for Category 3 projects, the ones RERA contracts directly. In a Category 1 major project the developer manages, and Article 37–38 route removal through the RERA CEO on proof of incompetence, not through a committee vote. If your building is developer-managed, the committee's realistic instrument is Article 24(2) and (4) — the budget review and the fourteen-day complaint clock — not a change of manager.

Owner or tenant?

Article 16(b) is short and decides most of the arguments:

Both halves matter. A lease can shift the charge to the tenant — the default is contractual, not mandatory. But the shift never releases the owner: if the tenant does not pay, the management entity still looks to the owner, and the Article 32 lien still sits on the unit. A landlord who has passed the service charge to a tenant has bought a reimbursement claim against that tenant, not an exit from the obligation.

Article 16(a) adds that both owner and tenant remain bound to the other owners, the occupants, the owners committee and the management entity to comply with the statute, the master community declaration and the building management regulation.

Checking your own building

1. Look up the approved rate. The DLD Service Charge Index lets anyone "inquire about the approved service fees for joint ownership properties from the Real Estate Regulatory Agency". It is immediate, open to all, and available through the DLD website, the Mollak system and the Dubai REST app: pick the project, the usage type and the year. If what you were invoiced is not what the index shows for that year and usage, that is the conversation to have.
2. Check the two areas. Applicable Area and Suite Area, top of the invoice, against the area recorded in the Real Property Register per Article 25(b).
3. Check the invoice is not a lump sum. The Mollak format itemises every cost line at its own rate with net, VAT and total.
4. Ask for the budget and the audit. Article 24(2) gives the owners committee the right to request the financial reports, and Article 27(b) means an unaudited budget cannot have been approved.
5. Ask which category the property is in. It decides whether replacing the manager is even a route.
6. If a complaint goes nowhere in fourteen days, Article 24(4) sends it to RERA, and Article 33(a)(4) obliges RERA to consider complaints against developers, management entities and owners committees and take action.
7. Grievances against a decision go to the DLD Director General in writing within thirty days under Article 46, decided within thirty days by a committee, without prejudice to the RDSC.
8. Disputes go to the RDSC. Article 42 gives it "exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine all disputes and disagreements related to the rights and obligations stipulated in this Law".

Sources

• Law No. (6) of 2019 Concerning Ownership of Jointly Owned Real Property in the Emirate of Dubai — Article 2 definitions of Service Charges, Usage Charges, Common Parts, Management Entity and Occupant; Article 16 on leasing and who is liable; Article 18 on the three management categories; Articles 22–24 on the owners committee's constitution, meetings, one-vote rule and exclusive duties; Article 25 on the owner's share and the register area; Article 27 on RERA approval and the audit requirement; Article 28 on the bar to refusing payment; Article 29 on preventing owners from using their unit; Article 30 on the service charges account, the seven-day deposit rule and the ten permitted uses; Article 32 on the lien, the thirty-day notice and enforcement by the execution judge at the RDSC; Article 33 on RERA's audit, inspection and complaint powers; Article 41 on insurance; Article 42 on RDSC exclusive jurisdiction; Article 44 on fines from AED 1,000,000; Article 46 on grievances; Articles 48–49 and 51–52 on compliance, succession, repeal and commencement, Dubai Legislation portal, official English text (PDF)
• Approval of service fees and utilization fees application — the documents a management company must file through Mollak, including the detailed annual budget, a minimum of three tender proposals per service, the service and insurance contracts and the RERA-accredited external audit report; free of charge; 25 minutes, Dubai Land Department e-service
• Service Charge Index — the public enquiry into "the approved service fees for Joint ownership properties from the Real Estate Regulatory Agency", open to all, immediate, via the DLD website, Mollak and the Dubai REST app, Dubai Land Department e-service
• Mollak — the system description as an integrated platform monitoring service charge accounts through escrow-account mechanics, with quarterly invoices issued to owners, Mollak, Dubai Land Department
• Real estate property owner is obliged to pay service and usage charges for jointly owned property — the DLD's own statement of Article 16(b), that the owner is not relieved if the tenant fails to pay, and that accumulated charges can lead to sale of the unit, Dubai Land Department

Verified 8 September 2026. Every article number, quotation and figure attributed to Law No. 6 of 2019 was read in the official English text published on the Dubai Legislation portal on the day of publication. The budget-approval documents, the audit requirement and the Service Charge Index description were read on the live DLD e-service pages. The invoice structure — the Applicable Area and Suite Area fields, the general fund components, the reserve fund line, the itemised cost table with per-square-foot rates and line-level VAT, and the printed formulas — was read from a Mollak-generated service charge tax invoice published on the Mollak domain; that document is not linked here because it carries an owner's personal and bank details, and no rates from it are reproduced. General information, not legal advice.