The director-general of the Dubai Land Department has urged tenants to challenge landlords over arbitrary rent increases, insisting they should only be in line with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA)’s annual rental index.
Tenants who feel aggrieved by “unjustified” rental hikes can take their case to the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre, Sultan Butti Bin Mejren said last week.
He told Emirates247 on the sidelines of the Cinder Dubai conference: “There is a rent law in place and all have to follow it. All the rents have to be increased as per the rent index.
“If somebody is cheating in the market you can go to the rental dispute committee. We now have a fast-track system in place and decisions are taken in just 30 days.”
The Rental Disputes Settlement Centre was established in 2013 with the aim of improving the legal frameworks in place to protect tenants and quickly settle disputes.
Meanwhile, the DLD announced last month that the official RERA index would be updated once a year to ensure rents are kept in line with market fluctuations.
Bin Mejren was quoted as saying: “We thought it would be best for the market. One rents an apartment for a year and hence, the rent will not change every month or quarter, but only after a year.”
He also said the department was working to improve the index but did not give a timeframe within which this work would be completed, the newspaper said.
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