Eviction: Article 25 line by line

One article, two different machines

Article 25 of Law No. 26 of 2007, as replaced by Law No. 33 of 2008, contains two paragraphs that people routinely blend into one. They have different grounds, different notice periods and different consequences.

If a notice does not identify which paragraph it is operating under — and many do not — work it out from the ground it claims. A notice alleging that you damaged the property is a 25(1) instrument and cannot be cured by waiting a year; a notice saying the owner intends to sell is a 25(2) instrument and cannot take effect for twelve months, whatever date it names.

Article 25(1): the nine grounds during the term

The landlord may seek eviction before expiry only in these cases. The list is closed.

• (a) Unpaid rent. Unless the parties agreed otherwise, where the tenant fails to pay rent or any part of it within thirty days of being served a notice demanding payment. The thirty days start from service of that notice, not from the missed due date — so the clock a landlord must run is service first, then thirty days, then a claim.
• (b) Unauthorised subletting. Where the tenant sublets without the landlord's written approval. The eviction applies to both the tenant and the subtenant, and the subtenant keeps a right to claim compensation from the tenant. (The 2007 original applied the eviction to the subtenant; the 2008 replacement extends it expressly to the tenant as well.)
• (c) Illegal use. Using the property, or allowing it to be used, for an illegal purpose or one conflicting with public order or morals.
• (d) Abandoned business premises. Unless otherwise agreed, where premises leased as business premises are left unoccupied without valid reason for 30 consecutive days, or 90 non-consecutive days in a year. This ground was added by the 2008 amendment and applies to commercial premises only — it is not a ground against a residential tenant who travels.
• (e) Damage or dangerous alteration. A change endangering the property's safety such that it cannot be restored to its original state; or damage caused deliberately, by gross negligence in failing to exercise due caution and care, or by allowing others to cause it.
• (f) Wrong use. Using the property for a purpose other than the one it was leased for, or in a way that violates the planning, construction and land-use regulations in force in the Emirate.
• (g) Risk of collapse. Where the property is likely to collapse — provided the landlord proves it by a technical report issued or certified by Dubai Municipality. An engineer's letter procured by the landlord is not that report.
• (h) Any other breach, after notice. Failure to comply with an obligation under the Law or a term of the contract within thirty days of being served a notice requiring compliance. This is the catch-all — and the thirty-day cure window is the tenant's protection inside it.
• (i) Government-mandated demolition. Where the competent government entities decide that demolition and reconstruction are mandated by urban development requirements.

Two of the nine are curable and the difference is everything. Grounds (a) and (h) both require a notice and then thirty days in which you can fix the problem. Pay within the window, or comply within the window, and the ground evaporates. Grounds (b) to (g) and (i) carry no cure period — which is why an unauthorised sublet cannot be repaired by ending it after the notice arrives.

Article 25(2): the four grounds at expiry

Once the term is over, the landlord's options narrow to four, and none of them involves anything you did:

• (a) Demolition or new structures. The owner wishes to demolish and reconstruct the property, or add new structures that would prevent the tenant from using it — provided the owner obtains the required permits from the competent entities.
• (b) Restoration or comprehensive maintenance that cannot be carried out while the tenant occupies the property — verified by a technical report issued or certified by Dubai Municipality. Not by the landlord's contractor, and not by a quotation for a renovation.
• (c) Owner's own use, or a first-degree relative's use — provided the owner proves that he does not own any alternative property suitable for the purpose. That proviso was added by the 2008 amendment and is the single most useful sentence in the paragraph for a tenant: it converts a bare assertion into something the owner must evidence.
• (d) The owner wishes to sell. Drafted without conditions, which makes it the most-used ground — and the most misunderstood, for the reason in the next section.

The twelve months — and the phrase almost every guide gets wrong

The closing line of Article 25(2), in the version in force:

Three things follow, and each of them decides real cases.

1. Twelve months runs to the eviction date, not to the contract's expiry. The 2007 original required notice "at least ninety (90) days prior to the expiry of the Lease Contract"; the 2008 amendment replaced both the period and the reference point. So a notice served eight months before your contract expires does not evict you on that expiry — the tenancy renews and the eviction date falls twelve months after service. A landlord who wants you out on the expiry date must have served the notice a full year before it.
2. Service is restricted to two channels. Notary Public or registered mail. This is narrower than the Law's general definition of "Notice" in Article 2, which also allows delivery by hand or by technological means approved by law. That wider definition governs ordinary notices between the parties — a rent demand under 25(1)(a), a 90-day notice to amend terms. It does not govern an eviction notice under 25(2), where the article names its own two methods. An eviction notice arriving by email, WhatsApp or the agent's courier is defective on its face.
3. The notice must state the reasons. Not "we require vacant possession" — the eviction reasons, meaning the ground relied on. A notice that does not commit to a ground cannot later be propped up by whichever ground turns out to be provable.

Widely repeated and not in the statute: that demolition or major renovation requires twenty-four months' notice. The article sets twelve months for all four grounds under 25(2) and draws no distinction between them. We could not find that longer period anywhere in Law 26/2007 or Law 33/2008, and we do not repeat it. Also frequently mis-stated: that a landlord may evict at expiry simply by giving 90 days' notice. That was the 2007 text, replaced in 2008 — the 90-day rule that survives is Article 14, which is about amending the contract's terms, most often the rent.

A sale does not end your lease

Article 28 is unambiguous: transferring ownership of the property to a new owner does not affect the tenant's right to continue occupying it under the contract made with the previous owner, provided that contract has a fixed term. The buyer inherits your tenancy on its existing terms.

Put beside Article 25(2)(d), the position is this: an intention to sell is a ground to refuse renewal at expiry, on twelve months' notice — it is not a ground to remove a tenant mid-term, and completing the sale does not shorten a running contract. "The flat has been sold, you have thirty days" describes no provision of Dubai law.

After an owner-use eviction: the re-letting bar

Article 26, as replaced in 2008: where the Tribunal rules in the landlord's favour on the owner-use ground at 25(2)(c), the landlord may not rent the property to a third party before at least two years have passed for residential property, or three years for non-residential property, from the date of retaking possession. If he does, the former tenant may ask the Tribunal to award fair compensation.

The 2007 original set that bar at one calendar year. It was doubled, and for commercial premises tripled, precisely because the owner-use ground was being used to reset rents. If you were evicted for the owner's own use and the unit reappears on the listings six months later, the screenshot of that listing is your claim — take it with the date and the portal reference.

The right to come back

Article 29: where the property is demolished and reconstructed, or renovated and restored, the tenant has a right of first refusal to return, with the rent then determined under the Article 9 criteria — RERA's rent-increase criteria, the economic situation, the condition of the property and prevailing rents for similar property in the same area. The right must be exercised within thirty days of being notified by the landlord.

It is a narrow right in practice, because it depends on the landlord notifying you and on a rent set by reference to the market rather than your old contract. It is worth reserving in writing when you vacate, so that the thirty-day clock has somewhere to start.

What does not change while the fight is running

• Article 31 — rent keeps running. Filing an eviction claim does not exempt the tenant from paying rent for the whole period the claim is being considered, until an award is issued and executed. Withholding rent because you are being evicted converts a 25(2) case, which you might win, into a 25(1)(a) case, which you will not.
• Article 34 — no self-help. The landlord may not disconnect services or disturb your use of the property in any manner. The remedies are a report at the police station covering the area, and a damages claim at the Tribunal supported by official reports. Changing the locks, cutting the power and removing the AC are not accelerated procedures; they are violations that strengthen your position.
• Article 6 — the tenancy renews meanwhile. Where the term expires and you continue in occupation without objection, the contract renews for the same term or one year, whichever is shorter, on the same terms. A pending twelve-month eviction notice is not an objection to occupation; it is notice of a future date.

What to do when a notice arrives

1. Check how it was served. Notary Public or registered mail for a 25(2) eviction. Keep the envelope, the notary stamp and the date. Service is where defective notices die.
2. Identify the ground and the paragraph. A 25(1) ground alleging breach: is there a cure window — (a) or (h) — and are you inside it? A 25(2) ground: which of the four, and does it come with its proviso (permits, Municipality report, no alternative property)?
3. Date the eviction. Twelve months from service, for anything under 25(2). Write that date down; it is usually later than the date on the notice.
4. Keep paying the rent and keep the receipts. Article 31, above.
5. Reply once, in writing, stating what you dispute and asking for the document the ground requires — the permits, the Municipality report, or evidence that the owner has no alternative suitable property. Send it by a method that leaves proof.
6. If it does not resolve, file. The Rental Disputes Centre hears both directions; a tenant can bring a claim to invalidate a notice as readily as a landlord can bring one to enforce it. Fees, documents and timelines are in filing at the RDC.

And if the notice is valid and you would rather leave on your own timetable than fight for the twelve months, the exit is a negotiation, not a right — see leaving a tenancy early, where the same Article 7 that stops a landlord removing you mid-term also stops you leaving mid-term.