A tenant worth keeping, and nothing on your desk

Valuation first, then the permit, then the market. We price the property against what comparable units in your building are actually leasing for, list it under a Trakheesi advertising permit, and market it. Once terms are agreed with a tenant we vet them, draw the tenancy contract, collect the cheques and the deposit, register the tenancy on Ejari and run the move-in handover against a signed inventory. How long the marketing takes depends on the price, the season and the condition of the property far more than on anything else, and we tell you where it stands every week rather than when something happens.

A copy of the title deed, your passport, and your Emirates ID if you hold one. The DEWA premise number, and in many buildings the chiller or district cooling account details. If someone is signing for you, a power of attorney. If the property is mortgaged, check your loan terms, as some lenders require notice before it is rented out. We tell you what is missing before the listing goes live rather than at the point a tenant is waiting to sign.

Yes, and many of our landlords do. The tenancy can be signed on your behalf under a power of attorney, Ejari registration and the move-in handover happen here, and rent is transferred to the account you nominate. The team works in nine languages, which is usually how overseas owners end up with us. What makes it work is not the paperwork but the reporting, so you know what is happening in a building you cannot walk into.

Two things set it: what comparable units in your building and community are actually leasing for, and the Dubai Land Department's rental index, which also governs what you can do at renewal. We price against completed leases rather than against other listings, because asking prices are a record of hope. If the figure you have in mind is above what the evidence supports, we will show you the comparables and say so, rather than take the instruction and watch the property sit until you lower it yourself.

It is the most underrated decision you will make. Fewer cheques means the money reaches you sooner and is worth more, but it narrows the pool to tenants who can pay that way. More cheques widens the pool and usually supports a higher headline rent, at the cost of more administration and more exposure if one bounces. There is no universally correct answer, only the one that suits your property and the demand in your community at that moment, and we will tell you which way it is currently pointing.

Ejari is the Dubai Land Department's tenancy registration system, and every residential lease in Dubai must be registered on it. The obligation sits with the landlord, though in practice the agent does it. Without it your tenant cannot open a DEWA account or sponsor family visas, and you have no registered record of the tenancy if a dispute ever reaches the rental committee. We register it on every property we rent out.

You pay the service charge to the building or community, and the cost of major maintenance: air conditioning plant, water heaters, structural items, anything that belongs to the property rather than to the person living in it. The tenant pays DEWA, cooling, internet, and the Dubai municipality housing fee, which is collected through their DEWA bill. Minor repairs are usually the tenant's up to a threshold written into the contract. We put that threshold in the tenancy in writing, rather than leaving it to be argued about the first August the air conditioning fails.

Only within what Dubai's rental index permits, and only with at least 90 days' written notice before the renewal date. The index measures the current rent against the market rate for comparable properties in the same area, and the Dubai Land Department publishes a calculator showing what, if anything, is allowed. Where a tenant is already paying at market rate the answer is frequently nothing. Pushing for an increase you are not entitled to is also the most reliable way to lose a tenant who was paying on time.

You must serve twelve months' notice, through a notary public or by registered post, and only on the grounds set out in Dubai's tenancy law, such as selling the property or moving into it yourself. Notice given in a message or a conversation does not start the clock, and neither does wanting to rent it out again at a higher rent. If there is any chance you will want the property back, tell us before we market it, because it changes the tenancy we should be signing.

There is no personal income tax in Dubai, so rental income to an individual owner is not taxed, and there is no annual property tax. Your recurring cost is the service charge, billed per square foot per year, which varies considerably between developments and is worth knowing precisely before you set a rent. You may still have a liability where you are tax resident, and that is a question for an adviser in that country rather than for us.

Leasing and management are in-house rather than passed to a third party, so the person who rents out your property is the person who answers when something happens inside it. A substantial share of our landlords are overseas owners, which only works when the reporting is honest and somebody on the ground actually picks up the phone. Our rental and management terms are set out in writing before you instruct us, so there is no percentage you discover later. We are licensed in Dubai under ORN 1484735 and RERA 49865.