Mollak
How Dubai Service Charges Are Approved, Banked and Enforced
Every service charge invoice in a jointly owned Dubai building has to pass through one government system before it can legally reach you. Mollak is where the budget is approved, where the money is banked, and where an owner can check whether the rate they are being billed is the rate the regulator actually signed off.
What Mollak Is, and Why It Sits Between You and Your Invoice
Mollak is the Dubai Land Department’s e-system for service charges in jointly owned property, delivered through the Real Estate Regulatory Agency. The name is the Arabic word for owners, and the design intent follows from that: the system exists to put the owner, rather than the management company, at the centre of the money.
Its practical effect is easy to state. A management entity cannot invent a service charge, send you a bill and bank the proceeds wherever it likes. It must build an annual budget, have that budget audited externally, submit it to RERA through Mollak for approval, invoice through the approved figures, and deposit what it collects into a bank account that RERA recognises and can see. Each of those steps is a statutory requirement under Law No. 6 of 2019 concerning ownership of jointly owned real property in the Emirate of Dubai, and each of them is a point at which an owner can ask a question.
That matters because the service charge is the one recurring cost of holding Dubai property. There is no annual property tax, so the charge is not a small line among many — it is the line. Our guide to service charges in Dubai sets out what the charge covers and the working range of AED 10 to AED 25 per square foot per year that TruHauz applies across the stock it advises on. Mollak is the other half of that story: not what you pay, but by what authority.
The public side of Mollak, at mollak.dubailand.gov.ae, is open to anyone. It publishes the approved service charge index, lets you search for authorised management companies, lists the approved auditor firms, names the participating banks, and offers an explanation of how an invoice is built. You do not need to own a unit to look. If you are comparing two towers before you buy, that is a free and authoritative cross-check on whatever an agent tells you.
Mollak at a Glance
The essentials in one place
What Law No. 6 of 2019 Actually Requires
Most writing about Mollak describes it as a transparency initiative. It is more concrete than that: a set of obligations with article numbers attached. These are the provisions an owner is most likely to need.
| Provision | What It Requires | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Article 16(b) | The owner is liable to pay the service charges and usage charges, and may not be discharged from that liability if the tenant fails to pay. | Owner liable |
| Article 2 | Holds the law’s definitions, including “Service Charges”, “Usage Charges”, “Management Entity” and “Jointly Owned Real Property”. | Definitions |
| Article 25 | Headed “Service Charges”. An owner will pay to the management entity his share of the annual service charges, covering the management, operation, maintenance and repair of the jointly owned real property. | Obligation to pay |
| Article 25(a) | Each owner pays a share set by the ratio of their unit’s area. A developer pays the charges on unsold units, and on sold units where it has undertaken to pay on the purchaser’s behalf. | Area-based |
| Article 26 | Headed “Usage Charges”. A master developer is entitled to collect usage charges from owners or sub-developers in respect of the common parts in the master project. | Usta geliştirici |
| Article 27(a) | A management entity must not charge owners without first obtaining the relevant approval of RERA. | No approval, no bill |
| Article 27(b) | RERA may not approve the budget unless it has first been approved by a certified audit firm recognised by RERA. | Audit first |
| Article 28 | An owner or sub-developer may not refrain from paying service charges or usage charges approved by RERA. | No set-off |
| Article 30(a) | The management entity must open a service charges account for each jointly owned property with a bank licensed in the Emirate and recognised by RERA. | Ring-fenced |
| Articles 30(b) & 31(b) | Collected charges must be deposited within seven working days from the date of collection. | 7 working days |
| Article 30(e)(8) | A cash reserve for emergency expenses or equipment replacement must sit in an account separate from the service charges account, and may not be disposed of without RERA approval. | Reserve protected |
| Article 31(a) | A usage charges account is required for major projects, mirroring the service charges account requirement. | Master projects |
| Article 32(a) | The management entity has a lien on every unit for unpaid service charges. | Lien |
| Article 32(b) | Where an owner fails to pay after a thirty-day notice, the claim is enforceable by the execution judge at the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre. | 30-day notice |
| Article 32(c) | The court may order that a unit be sold by public auction to collect the outstanding charges. | Auction |
Source: Law No. (6) of 2019 Concerning Ownership of Jointly Owned Real Property in the Emirate of Dubai, as published on the Dubai Legislation portal (dlp.dubai.gov.ae), retrieved 19 September 2026. Article summaries are paraphrased for readability — consult the published text for the operative wording. Not legal advice.
How a Service Charge Gets Approved, Step by Step
Six stages sit between a management company’s draft budget and the invoice that lands with you. Knowing the sequence tells you exactly which document to ask for, and when.
Procedure, required documents, the free fee and the 25-minute stated service time are taken from the Dubai Land Department’s “Approval of service fees and utilization fees application” e-service page (dubailand.gov.ae), retrieved 19 September 2026. Audit and banking requirements are from Law No. 6 of 2019.
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What Mollak Looked Like at Launch
The figures below are the ones reported when the system went live and shortly afterwards. They are dated deliberately: they show the scale Mollak reached at those moments, not the position today.
Projects registered at launch
Alongside 88 management companies and around 200,000 units — apartments, villas, offices and commercial shops — registered and approved through the system, as reported on 27 July 2019 when the Dubai Land Department announced Mollak.
Service charge bank accounts
Opened for project service charges at launch, with 7 banks acting as account trustees and 8 financial auditors registered, per the same 27 July 2019 report. Marwan bin Ghalita, then CEO of RERA, and Mohammed bin Hammad, Senior Director of the Real Estate Relations Regulatory Department, announced the system.
Expected to flow through Mollak
Gulf News reported on 23 March 2021 that Dubai expected to net Dh4 billion in freehold property service charges through Mollak, with 9 banks under RERA supervision opening escrow accounts for jointly owned property management companies.
Sıkça Sorulan Sorular
The questions owners ask most often about Mollak and the approval of service charges in Dubai.
Check the Approved Rate Before You Buy
TruHauz reads the approved budget, the reserve position and the charge history on every property we advise on — so the yield you are quoted is the yield you actually receive. Tell us what you are looking at.
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