With the property market in the UAE gathering momentum, rent rises are in the offing. Prestige magazine, propertyfinder.ae’s luxury property publication, spoke to Mario Volpi, managing director of Prestige Real Estate, to clear up the rental laws for worried tenants. I live in JLT. Last month, my landlord sent me a notice indicating a rent increase. Will this hike in rent be applicable immediately? Also, how can I be sure that I am not being fleeced? As a tenant, you should be given a 90-day notice period should your landlord wish to impose an increase to the existing rent value; any subsequent increase in rent would be applicable at the time of renewal. In terms of the validity of the increase, this can be checked with the help of the RERA rent calculator, which is found on the dubailand.gov.ae website. My Dubai landlord has asked me to vacate without giving me a 12 months’ written notice. Is this legal? A landlord can only request eviction of a tenant by giving a 12 months’ written notice. This notice should be in the form of a notarised document or sent via registered mail. 
My landlord says that he is going to sell the property I am living in. Is there a way I can verify if he is really selling or just using it as an excuse to evict me? A landlord has every right to sell his property and in doing so, has to give you a 12 months’ written notice. Once he does, you will have to allow access for viewings. However, if the landlord fails to sell the property, then the 12 months’ notice becomes void and you will not have to move out. I have been given 12 months’ notice in writing to move out of the apartment as my landlord wishes to move into it himself. Is it true that he cannot re-let the apartment for two years after my eviction? If he does re-let, what can I do? If a landlord has asked you to evict the property due to him or his immediate next of kin moving in, then it is true that for a period of two years from the date of the eviction, he cannot re-let the property. If you find out that he has actually re-let the property during this two-year period, you can open a case at the rent committee and will be entitled to compensation as per the law. 
What implications will the new Abu Dhabi rental index have on rents in the capital? It is not surprising that in a rising market like Abu Dhabi, the scrapping of the five per cent cap on rental increase has led to huge rent rises at the time of renewals. This, in turn, has driven the government to come up with a new rental index to regulate the market. This move is being largely welcomed by tenants and landlords in order to maintain prices at competitive levels. 
What is the law in terms of the length of notice required to evict a tenant in Abu Dhabi? The laws of Abu Dhabi are quite different to those of Dubai. In Abu Dhabi, the landlord can give a two months’ eviction notice to the tenant as long as the latter has been in the property for four years. 
I moved to Sharjah as I could not afford the rents in Dubai. With rents spiralling here as well, do you think we can hope for a rental cap in the emirate? Given that rental laws are firmly established in Dubai, Sharjah following suit with a rental cap is a possibility. The fact is that Sharjah tenants are protected against rental increases for three years as a landlord is not allowed to raise the rent during this time. However, rental increases are allowed in the fourth and every subsequent year hence. This is why tenants are calling for caps, as landlords are likely to declare unreasonable increases in and after the fourth year.
