Since May 2016 Dubai tenants are able to sub-lease their apartment or villa due to new Dubai regulations set in place. These regulations were issued by Dubai’s Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) in late April this year.
The new regulations will allow both homeowners and tenants to apply for a holiday home licence without needing to go through approved Dubai Tourism operator. A Holiday Home is classified as a furnished home which is rented as a whole unit either on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis without issuance of an Ejari regulated tenancy agreement. If you want to claim your home as a holiday home then it should be registered with by DTCM through licensed operators/individual homeowners/tenants.
Dubai’s Tourism’s online permit system allows you not only to submit and update information, but also to pay fees, schedule inspections, track status of applications and print off final records, whenever you need to.
Steps to registering for Dubai Tourism’s Holiday Homes Website
- When registering your property with Dubai Tourism’s Holiday Homes, the first step you will need to take is picking “Home Owner” in the “Registration Type”.
- You will then need to add managers by clicking on “Add New” in the next tab. Here you will enter in the contact details for the proposed manager as well as passport and Emirates ID numbers. Also include a scanned copy of the manager’s Emirates ID.
- Before you submit the form double check all of the details you have entered and that everything is in the correct place and properly uploaded.
- After you have submitted the form you will be given a record number and an emailed acknowledgement as well as a username/password for your account.
- In the future Dubai Tourism will allow you to make any payments online, although in the mean-time you will have to settle with going to the Dubai Tourism offices in Garhoud (Ground Floor, 6th, 8th and 9th Floor) between 8am and 5pm, Sunday to Thursday. When going to the offices remember to take the documents required. Below are the documents you will need to take:
- For homeowners you will need to provide proof of homeownership, which can be in the form of a copy of the Title Deed and Dewa bill(s).
- For tenants you will need to provide a No Objection Certificate from your homeowner and homeowner’s relevant documents such as Title Deed or Passport Copy. You will also need an Authorisation Letter from the homeowner, Ejar registration and Dewa bill(s).
The annual registration fee is Dh1,500 with an additional charge Dh50 to cover the unit classification fee. Just like with all government-related transactions, a Relevant Knowledge fee of Dh10 and an Innovation Fee of Dh10 will be applied.
- You will receive your final licence depending on the number of rooms your property has, as well as the term you intend to let your property out as a holiday home.
Things to remember
To avoid any legal action being taken out against you, there are a few things that you will need to remember when letting out a property as a holiday home:
- You will only be permitted to let out one property.
- There are a variety of different permit fees; firstly you will pay Dh300 per year for each bedroom your property has with a maximum amount of Dh1,200. This means that even if you have six bedrooms instead of paying Dh1,800 you will only have to pay Dh1,200 per year. You will also have a classification fee of Dh50 per unit, which will be added on.
- Depending on the classification of your property, you will be charged an extra fee of Dh10 for Standard properties or Dh15 for Deluxe properties. This will be charged per night of occupancy and needs to be paid to Dubai Tourism. These fees should not be paid any later than the 15th of the following month; this is to avoid any late payment fees.
- The Tourism Dirham will be charged only for the first 30 consecutive nights for any long stay bookings.
