My Tenant Has Stopped Paying Rent and I Need It Recovered

Before any letter goes out, assemble the lease and any renewals, the Ejari certificate (Tawtheeq in Abu Dhabi), a schedule of what fell due and when, what was paid, copies of any returned cheques with the bank's return advice, and every message about the arrears. The RDC's filing checklist asks for the latest Ejari, an Emirates ID (or a trade licence for a company), a bank letter or statement showing your IBAN, and supporting documents such as a power of attorney or management contract, all in Arabic or legally translated.

Then read the lease itself. Under Article 12, rent is paid on the dates the parties agreed, or, absent agreement, annually in four equal instalments in advance. Check the payment dates and method, any default clause, and whether there is an arbitration clause; an arbitration clause changes the route, although the RDC can still grant interim relief (Article 32). If a property manager or an attorney acts for you, confirm who the claimant should be and that the authority covers the claim.

If the lease was never registered in Ejari, you can still proceed: the RDC registers a claim without a contract if you add a request to prove the lease relationship. Expect an extra step and an evidence burden, so keep every payment record and message.

A plain written demand stating the amount, the periods it covers and a date to pay often surfaces the real problem: a lost job, a disputed repair, a company tenant short of cash. It also gives you a record. The RDC may rely on WhatsApp messages and emails as evidence where the parties acknowledge them in the case record, so keep the thread intact.

An informal demand is not the statutory notice and starts no clock under Article 25; only the notarised or registered-mail notice in the next step does. Some landlords therefore go straight to the formal notice; others use a lawyer's letter first to open a negotiation without losing time. A lawyer can advise which fits your tenant and your timetable.

Do not refuse rent the tenant offers in the hope of strengthening your case: where a landlord refuses rent, the RDC lets the tenant deposit it with the Centre through a deposit-and-offer procedure. If you would like a landlord-side lawyer to send the demand, you can describe your situation through LEXNOVA Legal Connect.

What the notice must say: Article 25(1)(a) allows eviction where the tenant fails to pay the rent, or any part of it, within 30 days of service of a notice requesting payment. At a minimum, then, the notice must request payment. A well-drafted notice also identifies the lease and the unit, sets out the unpaid amounts and the periods they relate to, and states that the landlord will seek eviction and recovery if payment is not made within 30 days. A lawyer can draft it to match the claim you intend to file.

How it must be delivered: for every Article 25(1) ground, the law requires service through a Notary Public or by registered mail. A courier, an email or a WhatsApp message does not satisfy that rule, whatever the RDC later accepts as evidence of the debt. Keep the notification officer's report or the registered-post proof, because the RDC's eviction filing asks for it.

Count carefully. The RDC's guidance says one condition for accepting the claim is that a month has passed since the tenant received the warning, so count from service, not from the date you signed the notice. The same 30-day notice pattern applies to other breaches of the lease under Article 25(1)(h).

Where rent is paid by cheque, arrears often arrive as a returned cheque. A returned cheque has its own route, and whether it is only a civil debt or can also support a criminal complaint depends on the circumstances and on cheque rules this page does not set out, so take advice before going to the police.

The cheque route runs separately from the RDC tenancy claim. How the two interact, including whether to pursue one, the other or both and how to avoid claiming the same money twice, is not something this page can state as a rule; put it to a lawyer before filing. Keep the original cheque and the bank's return advice. See our pages on a bounced cheque and on whether a bounced cheque is a crime in the UAE.

Once 30 days have passed since service without payment, the claim is registered through the RDC's website or a Real Estate Services Trustee centre; the RDC gives one business day for registration. You can ask for the unpaid rent and for eviction, and a lawyer will structure the claim so both are properly before the Centre. Ask your lawyer what else can be claimed alongside the rent.

Fees at the time of writing (September 2026): 3.5% of the amount claimed for a monetary claim (AED 500 minimum, AED 15,000 maximum) and 3.5% of the annual rent for non-monetary claims such as eviction (AED 500 minimum, AED 20,000 maximum), plus service and administrative fees; check the current schedule. Most claims go first to the RDC's conciliation stage, which aims to settle within 15 days of the parties' appearance, with half the fee refunded on settlement. Otherwise the file goes to a first-instance tribunal, which must decide within 30 days of referral, extendable once.

If the tenant pays part of the arrears after you file: tell your lawyer at once. Article 25(1)(a) refers to failure to pay the rent 'or any part thereof', so on the text a part-payment does not remove the ground, but how the RDC treats a late part-payment in your case is for the Centre. For a fixed sum there is also a payment writ, in which the RDC's summary judge can order payment after the tenant has been notified through a notary public or registered mail and five days have passed.

If you want a landlord-side lawyer to prepare and file the claim, you can describe your situation through LEXNOVA Legal Connect.

Many arrears cases end with an agreed timetable rather than a hearing. A settlement signed at the RDC's conciliation stage and approved by the supervising judge has the force of a writ of execution, so if the tenant misses an instalment you move to enforcement rather than starting again, and settling there returns half the filing fee.

A lawyer can structure the terms: the amount and dates, what happens on a missed payment, whether the tenant stays or leaves by an agreed date, how the deposit is applied and how outstanding cheques are handled. An informal side arrangement does not carry the same enforceability as a settlement approved at the RDC.

Settlement stays open after judgment too: the RDC's execution stage handles instalment requests, which can suit a tenant who can pay over time but not at once.

A first-instance judgment on a rent claim worth less than AED 100,000 is final and cannot be appealed, except in listed cases, and an eviction judgment can always be appealed. The appeal deadline is 15 days from the day after the hearing at which the judgment was issued, or from service of the judgment if the tenant never appeared or filed a defence.

If the tenant appeals: a tenant appealing a money judgment must deposit half the judgment amount with the Centre until the appeal is decided, although the Centre's chairman may admit an appeal without all or part of the deposit. An appeal against eviction needs no minimum claim value.

Execution: final judgments are enforced by the RDC's own Judgment Enforcement Directorate. An execution file can be opened 15 days after a judgment given in the tenant's presence, or 15 days after the tenant was notified. At the time of writing (September 2026), there is no RDC fee for executing a financial claim. The execution stage also handles travel-ban and arrest-warrant requests, and eviction-date extension requests go to its eviction section. For recovering the unit itself, see our page on how to evict a tenant in Dubai.