Filing a Real Estate Complaint in Dubai
What the Violations System Covers, and What It Refuses
The Land Department will take a complaint against a licensed broker or agency, and it will come back to you in five working days. What it will not do is award you money, unwind a contract, or look at anything older than six months. Knowing which forum your problem belongs in is most of the battle.
The Complaint Route Most People Use Wrongly
People in Dubai talk about making a RERA complaint as though it were a single door that handles anything that has gone wrong with a property. It is not. The Dubai Land Department runs a specific service called Complaint Against a Real Estate Company, delivered through the Real Estate Violations System, and it has a narrow and clearly stated purpose: recording violations committed by licensed real estate entities under Law No. 16 of 2007.
That purpose determines everything about what the service can do for you. It is a regulatory complaint. The outcome is action against the firm, not a payment to you. The Land Department service page is explicit about what falls outside it: rental agreement disputes, which are redirected to the Rental Disputes Centre, along with financial claims, contract cancellations, compensation disputes, and any transaction older than six months.
Read that exclusion list again, because it removes most of the reasons people go looking for the service in the first place. If a broker has kept a commission you believe is not owed, that is a financial claim. If you want out of an agreement, that is a contract cancellation. If you want to be made whole for a loss, that is compensation. None of those are what this form is for, and filing them here produces a closed complaint rather than a remedy.
What it is genuinely good at is conduct. An agency operating on an expired licence, a broker who is not registered at all, a listing published without a permit, a firm whose registered details do not match how it is presenting itself, obstruction of Land Department staff, or plainly poor service from a licensed office. Those are regulatory matters, the regulator is the right audience, and the complaint costs you nothing but the time to document it.
Complaint Against a Real Estate Company
As published by Dubai Land Department
Where Your Complaint Actually Belongs
Most failed complaints are correctly argued in the wrong place. Find your situation before you start filling in a form.
| Your Situation | Correct Forum | Neden |
|---|---|---|
| Broker or agency acting without a valid licence | Violations System | Regulatory conduct under Law No. 16 of 2007 |
| Listing advertised without a permit | Violations System | Advertising compliance is a regulatory matter |
| Company details misrepresented | Violations System | Incorrect company information is a listed category |
| Poor service from a registered firm | Violations System | Service quality by a licensed entity is in scope |
| Obstruction of Land Department staff | Violations System | Expressly a violation category |
| Unsolicited or nuisance marketing calls | Report Malicious Calls | The Land Department runs a separate service for this |
| Rent increase, eviction or a withheld deposit | Rental Disputes Centre | Rental agreement disputes are excluded and redirected |
| Recovery of a commission, deposit or loss | Not this service | Financial claims are excluded from scope |
| Getting out of a signed agreement | Not this service | Contract cancellations are excluded from scope |
| Compensation for a loss you have suffered | Not this service | Compensation disputes are excluded from scope |
| A transaction more than six months old | Not this service | Outside the published age limit for a complaint |
| Off-plan delay or a cancelled project | Project routes | Handled through the Land Department project framework |
Service scope, the exclusion of rental disputes, financial claims, contract cancellations and compensation disputes, the six-month transaction limit, the 1,000 character description limit, the one-time password step and the five working day expected response: Dubai Land Department, “Complaint Against a Real Estate Company” service page and “RVS Complaints” services index, dubailand.gov.ae, retrieved 28 September 2026. Violation categories and the availability of an appeal through the Land Department: Bayut, “Dubai RVS System Guide”, updated 15 July 2025. Rental Disputes Centre position as set out in our own Rental Disputes Centre guide. General information on a public process, not legal advice.
Six Things to Do Before You File
The form is short and the description field is capped. Almost all of the work that determines the outcome happens before you open it.
Establish whether the person you dealt with holds a current broker card and whether the company is registered and active. If they are not, your complaint changes character entirely and becomes far easier to evidence. Our guide to verifying a Dubai agent sets out how to run the check.
Every legitimate property advertisement in Dubai carries a permit. An advertisement without one is a regulatory issue in its own right, independent of whatever else went wrong, and it is recorded evidence you can point to. See the Trakheesi permit explained.
Work out the date of the transaction your complaint concerns and check it against the six-month limit before you invest effort in the filing. If you are close to the edge, file first with what you have rather than waiting to assemble a perfect submission.
The form requires documents supporting the alleged violation. Contracts, receipts, the advertisement as published, message threads and email trails all carry weight. A complaint that describes conduct without attaching anything is the weakest submission you can make.
Write the description before you start, because the field is capped and the cap is tight. Lead with the specific rule you say was broken, then the dates, then what the documents show. Leave the narrative of how you felt out of it entirely.
The Land Department runs a separate tracking service that takes a Real Estate Violation System complaint number and returns its status. Record the number the moment you receive it. Bayut also reports that an appeal is available through the Land Department where a decision is considered unfair.
Want to deal with a licensed, permit-compliant agency from the start?
TruHauz is RERA registered, and every listing we publish carries its own permit. Ask us for both before you engage anyone.
Three Ways a Good Complaint Gets Closed
None of these are about the merits. All three are avoidable before you submit.
It Is Really a Money Claim
By far the most common failure. The complainant wants a commission returned or a loss made good, and the Violations System excludes financial claims and compensation disputes by design. The conduct point may still be worth filing, but the recovery has to be pursued separately, and treating the complaint as the recovery costs you the time you had.
The Transaction Is Too Old
Six months is short, and it runs from the transaction rather than from the moment the problem became obvious to you. Disputes that have been going back and forth informally for a season can time out of this route while the parties are still exchanging messages. If you think you may need the regulator, file inside the window and keep negotiating in parallel.
It Belongs at the Rental Disputes Centre
Rent, eviction, renewal terms and withheld deposits are tenancy matters and the service page redirects them. The Rental Disputes Centre was established by Decree No. 26 of 2013 and charges a filing fee on the claim. A tenancy complaint filed at the regulator is not a step towards a hearing, it is a detour away from one.
Sıkça Sorulan Sorular
What buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants in Dubai ask most often about complaining to the regulator.
General information on a public process, not legal advice. Service scope and timings are those published by Dubai Land Department and retrieved on 28 September 2026; check the service page before relying on them, as e-service terms change. Take qualified legal advice before pursuing a claim for money, compensation or cancellation of a contract. Related reading: the Rental Disputes Centre, when an off-plan project is cancelled, off-plan handover delay, Mollak and service charges ve owners associations.
Deal With a Licensed Agency From the Start
The cheapest complaint is the one you never have to make. We are happy to show you our registration and the permit behind any listing before you commit to anything.
