Mollak is the Dubai Land Department system that approves and invoices service charges for jointly owned property, and it bills owners quarterly. Service charges cover the common parts of the building only. Under Law No. 6 of 2019 everything inside your own unit, including the pipework and wiring that serve it alone, is the owner's cost.
Every year the invoice lands, the figure is bigger than last year, and the owner reads it as a bill for “the building” without ever establishing where the building stops. So when the bathroom starts leaking, the first call goes to the management company — who are entirely correct to say it is not theirs.
The boundary between the building's bill and yours is not a matter of opinion, or of how generous your building manager is feeling. Dubai law draws it article by article, and it runs along the inside face of your own front door.
What is Mollak, and what does it actually do?
Mollak is the e-system the Dubai Land Department built and runs through RERA to regulate jointly owned properties and monitor service charge payments. The name is the Arabic word for owners. The Dubai Land Department states that the system reflects the provisions of Law No. (6) of 2019 concerning jointly owned property.
Mollak does four things that matter to an owner:
- RERA issues the electronic service charge approvals through it
- Registered owners receive their service charge invoices quarterly through the system
- Management companies registered with RERA must upload financial statements and copies of their maintenance, service and supplier contracts for common-area services
- Service charge money runs through a regulated account on an escrow mechanism, rather than a management company's own balance
What do Dubai service charges actually cover?
Law No. (6) of 2019 defines service charges as the annual charges collected from owners to cover the cost of management, operation, maintenance and repair of jointly owned real property — that is, the common parts. The table sets the split out plainly.
Your share is not a flat fee either. The law calculates each owner's share from the ratio of the area of their unit to the total area of the jointly owned property, using the area recorded in the Real Property Register.
Where does the service charge stop and your own bill start?
The dividing line is in the article that defines what a unit is. A unit includes its ceilings — plaster and every other type — the additions forming part of its interior, the spaces between those ceilings, and the walls separating it from other parts of the property.
Which is why a blocked waste pipe inside your flat and a blocked riser serving the whole stack are two different bills with two different payers. If you rent the unit out, the follow-on question of who pays for maintenance in a Dubai rental is a separate test again, governed by the tenancy law rather than by this one.
How do you check the approved service charge for your building?
The Dubai Land Department Service Charge Index lets an owner inquire about the service fees RERA has approved for a jointly owned property. The Dubai Land Department gives the procedure in three steps and a service time of immediate:
- Log in to the website or the app and select the service
- Select the name of the project from the menu, the uses, and the year
- View the approved figures
The service runs through the Mollak system on the Dubai Land Department website, on the DLD website directly, and on the Dubai REST app.
What happens if a Dubai owner does not pay?
Law No. (6) of 2019 closes both of the obvious escape routes and then sets out a hard enforcement path. An owner may not refuse to pay charges RERA has approved, and may not waive their interest in the common parts in order to avoid paying.
- The management entity serves a written notice, approved by RERA, giving 30 days to pay
- If the money is not paid, the claim becomes enforceable by the execution judge at the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre
- Where necessary the judge may order the unit sold by public auction to collect the charges
- The defaulting owner pays the court fees, costs and advocates' fees the judge awards
The management entity also holds a lien on every unit for unpaid service charges, and the unit cannot be disposed of until they are paid. A sale that stalls at the Land Department counter is very often this.
How do you challenge a service charge in Dubai?
Challenging a Dubai service charge runs through RERA and the Dubai Land Department, not through an argument with the building manager. Law No. (6) of 2019 gives an owner five steps, in escalating order.
- Check the invoice against the approved figure. The Service Charge Index returns the fees RERA approved for your project, by year. A bill above it is the first discrepancy to raise.
- Check the area your share was calculated on. An owner's share comes from the ratio of the unit's area to the total area of the jointly owned property, using the area recorded in the Real Property Register — not a brochure figure.
- Ask the management entity for the audited budget. RERA may not approve a service charge budget unless a certified audit firm recognised by RERA approved it first — so an audited budget exists by law.
- File a complaint with RERA. RERA considers complaints against developers, management entities and owners committees over the upkeep of common parts, and may audit the service charge account's revenue and expenditure, demand statements, appoint its own certified auditor, and audit the maintenance, security and cleaning contracts.
- Submit a written grievance, then the Tribunal. An affected party has 30 days from being notified of a decision to submit a written grievance to the Director General, and a committee he forms decides it within 30 days. The Rental Disputes Settlement Centre holds exclusive jurisdiction over disputes under this law.
What happens if the common parts are not maintained?
A complaint that the building is not being looked after takes a different route from a complaint that the bill is wrong. Where RERA is satisfied that common parts or common facilities are not being kept in a good, clean and serviceable condition, it may serve written notice on the management entity naming the required works and the dates for starting and finishing them. If the works are still not carried out, RERA may appoint another entity to do them and debit the cost to the service charge account.
The part of the apartment nobody budgets for
Owners plan for the service charge because it arrives on a schedule. What catches people is the other side of the line — the kitchen, the bathrooms, the flooring, the joinery — because none of it is invoiced until it fails or until a tenant walks away over it. It is also the side that changes what the unit rents or sells for, which the shared corridor never will. Worth reading before you commit: what apartment renovation actually costs in Dubai and how to verify a Dubai contractor before anyone takes a deposit.
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Frequently asked questions about Mollak and service charges in Dubai
What is Mollak in Dubai?
Mollak is the Dubai Land Department system, run through RERA, that regulates and monitors service charges for jointly owned property in Dubai. Mollak means owners in Arabic. It approves the service charge budget, issues quarterly invoices to registered owners, and holds management companies to uploading financial statements and copies of their supplier contracts.
What do service charges cover in a Dubai apartment?
Service charges in Dubai cover the common parts of the building only. Law No. 6 of 2019 defines them as the annual charges collected from owners for the management, operation, maintenance and repair of jointly owned property. Lobbies, lifts, corridors, the pool, the car park and the shared plant are covered. The inside of your apartment is not.
Who pays the service charge in Dubai, the owner or the tenant?
The owner pays, unless the lease agreement for the unit states otherwise. Law No. 6 of 2019 is explicit that an owner cannot be discharged from liability for the service charge if a tenant fails to pay it. A landlord who has passed the charge to a tenant in the contract still answers to the management entity for the money.
How do I check my building's approved service charge in Dubai?
The Dubai Land Department Service Charge Index lets an owner look up the service fees RERA has approved for a jointly owned property. Select the project name from the menu, then the uses and the year. The Dubai Land Department lists the service time as immediate, and it runs through the Mollak system, the DLD website and the Dubai REST app.
What happens if I do not pay service charges in Dubai?
The management entity holds a lien on the unit, so a Dubai apartment cannot be sold or otherwise disposed of while service charges are outstanding. The owner is served a written notice approved by RERA giving 30 days to pay. After that the claim is enforceable by the execution judge at the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre, who may order sale by public auction.
Can a Dubai building manager cut off my access to force payment?
No. Law No. 6 of 2019 states that a developer or management entity must not take action against an owner to prevent that owner from taking possession of or using the unit, or from using the common parts and common facilities, with the intent of forcing payment of service charges outside the procedures the law sets out.
