Your DIFC Landlord Announced a Rent Increase Weeks Before Expiry: Is It Valid?

No, if the lease is residential and the landlord's first written proposal reached you fewer than ninety days before the end date. Article 31(1) of the DIFC Leasing Law requires a landlord to give written notice of a proposed rent increase at least 90 days before a residential lease expires, and Article 31(3) says that an increase in breach of the article is invalid. What a late notice does not give you is a new year at the old rent. In Mithof v Mahaad [2023] DIFC SCT 296, the DIFC Courts' Small Claims Leasing Tribunal held a late increase invalid, let the tenant stay for ninety days from its judgment at the old rent, and ordered her to leave at the end of them.

So the rule decides whether you pay the new figure, not how long you stay. Below is the Mithof timeline, worth building for your own lease from the expiry date backwards. The ninety-day date and day counts are our arithmetic, not the judgment's.

What does the DIFC 90-day rent increase rule require?

Three things, all in Article 31: notice in writing, of a proposed rent increase, given at least ninety days before the residential lease expires. Article 31(2) adds that, unless the lease expressly provides otherwise, the landlord must not increase the rent before the term ends. Under Article 31(3), an increase in breach of either rule, or of any provision on increases specified in the Leasing Regulations, is invalid.

The Law counts calendar days. Schedule 1 moves an obligation that falls on a Saturday, Sunday or official public holiday to the next business day, and Article 64 treats a notice served after 5 pm, or on a day that is not a business day, as served on the next business day. A notice sent close to the line needs an exact count.

Article 31 does not limit the size of an increase. Article 9(2)(a) allows the DIFC Authority to make regulations capping rent or rent increases for certain types of premises, but the Leasing Regulations, in the consolidated version in force on 22 February 2023, contain no cap and no provision about increases. The rule protects the timing of the conversation, not the price.

Deadline warning. Count back ninety calendar days from the expiry date written in the lease, not from the date you expected to renew. A proposal that arrives after that day is late however reasonable the new figure, and in Mithof both of the landlord's emails came after it.

The three conditions, side by side:

Does the ninety-day rule cover your lease?

Only if it is a residential lease of premises in the DIFC. Article 31 sits in Part 3 of the Law, which Article 20 applies to residential leases only, meaning leases of premises to be used wholly or predominantly for residential use. A flat let as a home is covered and an office or shop is not.

Article 3(2) takes two kinds of lease out of the Law altogether: leases of premises used primarily as serviced apartments or as hotel inventory, where appropriately licensed, and leases made by the parties to a mortgage of the premises under the mortgage's terms. Within the Law's scope, Article 11 makes a lease term invalid if it excludes, restricts or modifies the application of any provision of the Law. On those words, a clause letting the landlord raise the rent on thirty days' notice before expiry would be invalid.

On the current texts, rules made for mainland Dubai tenancies do not decide this question. In Earlene v Earl [2014] DIFC CFI 011, the tenant of a DIFC apartment whose lease named the mainland landlord and tenant law relied on its deemed renewal and its twelve-month notice for requiring a tenant to leave. The Small Claims Tribunal ordered her to vacate and to pay rent up to its judgment at the monthly rate, and the Court of First Instance upheld its view that the mainland law could not be applied in the DIFC. That 2014 decision predates the Leasing Law and applied laws since replaced, including the Judicial Authority Law and the 2007 Real Property Law. Today Article 9(1) of the Real Property Law provides that Dubai real estate laws do not apply to the real property it governs unless they say they apply in the DIFC.

Does an email count as written notice, and when was it given?

It can, depending on where it went and who sent it. Article 63 allows a notice to be served at the address for service stated in the lease, which may include an email address, at an individual's place of residence, or at a company's registered office or principal place of business. The Law defines the lessor to include a duly authorised agent acting for the lessor, so a managing agent's email can be the landlord's notice if the agent had that authority.

A conversation, a call or a remark at a viewing is not written notice, and the document has to propose an increase. In Mithof the July email named the new rent, and the only question was timing.

What counts is when the notice was given to you. The landlord in Mithof also relied on an email of 28 May 2023 that the tenant said never arrived. The Tribunal did not resolve that dispute. Both dates fell inside the final ninety days, and it found that the written notice was provided less than ninety days before the lease expired.

What did the Tribunal decide in Mithof v Mahaad?

That the increase was invalid, and then something narrower about the tenancy. The landlord's position was that the tenant had to accept AED 65,000 or vacate. She filed the day before expiry asking for an order allowing her to remain, on the ground that the increase had not been notified as the Leasing Law requires.

The Tribunal held that the lease and the Leasing Law governed the relationship, quoted Article 31(1), found that written notice of the proposed increase had not been given in accordance with it, and applied Article 31(3): the increase was invalid. It recorded that the lease had expired without renewal by either party and that the parties had not agreed a price. On that footing it ordered that the written notice would take effect from its judgment of 25 October 2023 for ninety days at the old rent of AED 40,000, a daily rate of AED 109.58, after which the tenant must vacate, and that the landlord pay her AED 367.50 filing fee.

The case was decided in 2023, when the DIFC Courts' jurisdiction rested on Dubai Law No. 12 of 2004, the Judicial Authority Law, which Dubai Law No. 2 of 2025 has since superseded under its Article 43(A). Nothing in the reasoning turned on that Law, and Article 31 reads the same in the current consolidated text. A search of the DIFC Courts' published judgments, including the Court of Appeal listing, and of the Conflicts of Jurisdiction Tribunal's published decisions found no appeal or later order in the claim.

Key takeaway. Mithof decided two different things. The invalidity of the increase came from Article 31(3). The ninety days at the old rent, running from the judgment, was the remedy chosen on those facts, after the lease had expired and the parties had failed to agree a price. The Law does not say that a late notice buys any fixed period.

Can you stay on at the old rent, and for how long?

Not indefinitely, and not as of right for another year. The Leasing Law says what happens to a late increase but not what happens to the tenancy, and it gives a residential tenant no right to renew at the old rent. The tenant in Mithof, who asked to remain, was given ninety days from the judgment and an order to leave at the end. On that decision, expect a period to move, not a new lease.

Earlene shows the other side of the risk. The tenant who stayed after expiry, relying on rules that did not apply, was ordered to vacate and to pay rent up to the judgment at the monthly rate. In both cases the extra time was priced, and staying past the end date without a new lease, an agreed extension or an order is a position the landlord can take to the Tribunal.

While the disagreement runs, keep paying the rent the lease requires until it expires, because non-payment is a separate breach with its own route to termination under Article 54. Expect viewings too. Articles 42 to 45 let the landlord show the flat to a prospective tenant during the last thirty days of the term where no new lease has been agreed, on at least two days' written notice stating the reason.

If the landlord cuts utilities or keeps you out, the related guide on paying extra rent and being told to leave covers Article 17 and possession.

The two anchors, on the question of staying:

If the notice reached you in time, what are your options?

Accept it, negotiate, or leave at the end of the term. A notice given in time is still a proposal, and you need not sign a new lease at the new rent. But the Law gives you no right to keep the flat at the old one, so refusing means planning the move.

Accepting means a new lease between the same parties, and Article 22(4)(a) lets the landlord ask for a corresponding increase in the security deposit. The deposit rules that follow, and the handover evidence if you leave instead, are covered in the related guide on a landlord keeping the deposit after you leave.

If you negotiate, put the outcome in writing before expiry. Article 10 requires a lease to be in writing and to state its term and rent, so say whether you have agreed a new one-year lease or a short extension to move. A figure without a term leaves open the question Mithof had to answer.

How do you take a late increase to the Small Claims Tribunal?

By a small claim in the DIFC Courts. Dubai Law No. 2 of 2025 gives the DIFC Courts exclusive jurisdiction over civil claims arising from contracts concluded, completed or performed wholly or partly within the DIFC (Article 14(A)(2)), and leaves the value and type of the Tribunal's claims to the Chief Justice (Article 20). The Leasing Law's own applications go to the Court, which it defines to include any specific tribunal created for disputes under the Law. Rule 53.2 of Part 53 of the Rules of the DIFC Courts gives the Tribunal claims of up to AED 500,000 and refers separately to claims filed with the Small Claims Leasing Tribunal, where Mithof was decided.

A claim starts on Form P53/01, the defendant has seven days after service to acknowledge it, and an SCT judge then holds a consultation whose primary purpose is to let the parties try to resolve the dispute. If that fails, a different judge hears the claim, informally and usually in private. Mithof took about eleven weeks from claim to judgment, which is one case's timetable and not a promise for the next.

Under Rule 53.79 each party generally bears its own costs, although the Tribunal may order a party to pay some or all of the other side's court fees and, for unreasonable behaviour, further costs. An appeal to the Court of First Instance needs permission, the appellant's notice is due within fourteen days of the decision under Rule 53.107, and the Court of First Instance's judgment on the appeal is final under Article 21(C) of the 2025 Law.

What should you do before the lease ends?

Work from the expiry date backwards, and keep the decision about where to live separate from the argument about the rent.

1. Find the expiry date in the signed lease and count back ninety calendar days.
2. List every message about rent with its date, time, sender and the address it went to, and mark the first written proposal of a higher rent.
3. Confirm that the lease is residential and not excluded by Article 3(2), and read any clause on increases or notices against Articles 11 and 31.
4. Reply in writing, recording when the proposal reached you and whether you accept it.
5. Keep paying the rent the lease requires until it expires.
6. Decide where you will live after the end date, valid increase or not, and put any new lease or extension in writing before expiry.
7. If there is no agreement and the timing is disputed, file a small claim before the lease ends, as the tenant in Mithof did.

The first mistake is arguing about the amount rather than the date. Article 31 says nothing about the size of an increase and the Regulations set no cap, so calling the figure unfair has no legal hook, while a first written proposal 76 days before expiry does. The second is reading invalidity as a renewal. The tenant in Mithof won on the increase and still had to leave, so the search for the next flat cannot wait for the outcome. The third is silence, which leaves the record to the landlord's version of events, when Mithof turned on dated emails.

This guide reads the Leasing Law from the consolidated version of March 2022, which incorporates DIFC Laws Amendment Law No. 2 of 2022, and the DIFC amendment laws enacted since then that were read for it do not touch Article 31. The case searches described above are bounded searches of published decisions, not a certificate from the court file.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the 90-day rule apply to my office or shop lease in the DIFC? No. Article 31 is in Part 3 of the Leasing Law, which Article 20 applies to residential leases only, meaning leases of premises used wholly or predominantly for residential use. For a commercial or retail lease, any increase depends on the lease terms, and Part 4 of the Law, on retail leases, contains no rule on rent increases.

Is an email from the landlord's agent valid notice of an increase? It can be. The Leasing Law defines the lessor to include a duly authorised agent acting for the lessor, and Article 63 allows a notice to be served at the address for service in the lease, which may include an email address. If the agent's authority or the address is in doubt, ask the landlord in writing to confirm the proposal, and measure the date a valid notice reached you against the ninety-day line.

My lease lets the landlord raise the rent for the next term on thirty days' notice. Does that clause win? Not on the words of the Law. Article 11 makes a lease term invalid if it excludes, restricts or modifies the application of any provision of the Leasing Law, and Article 31(1) contains no exception for a contrary clause. Article 31(2) lets a lease provide for an increase during the term, but it says nothing about the notice period before expiry.

Is there a cap on how much a DIFC landlord can increase the rent? Not in the published texts. Article 9(2)(a) of the Leasing Law allows the DIFC Authority to make regulations capping rent or rent increases for certain types of premises, but the Leasing Regulations, in the consolidated version in force on 22 February 2023, contain no cap and no provision about increases. Under Article 9(1) of the Real Property Law, Dubai real estate laws made for property outside the DIFC do not apply to DIFC property unless they say so.

Can the landlord increase the rent in the middle of my lease? Only if the lease expressly allows it. Article 31(2) says that unless a residential lease expressly provides otherwise, the landlord must not increase the rent before its term ends, and Article 31(3) makes an increase in breach of that rule invalid.

If the increase is invalid, do I get another full year at the old rent? Not under the Law as written. The Leasing Law says a late increase is invalid but gives no right to renew at the old rent. In Mithof v Mahaad the Tribunal gave the tenant ninety days from its judgment at the old rent and ordered her to leave afterwards, a remedy chosen on facts where the lease had expired and the parties could not agree a price.

Can the landlord show my flat to new tenants while we disagree? Yes, within limits. Article 43(a) allows entry to show the flat to a prospective tenant during the last thirty days of the term where you and the landlord have not agreed a new lease. Under Articles 42(b) and 45 the landlord must give at least two days' written notice stating why, sent by courier or email to an address in the lease for that purpose or handed to you between 8 am and 6 pm.

What does it cost to take a late increase to the Small Claims Tribunal? The filing fee in Mithof was AED 367.50, and the landlord was ordered to repay it. Under Rule 53.79 each party generally bears its own costs, although the Tribunal may order a party to pay some or all of the other side's court fees and, for unreasonable behaviour, further costs. Check the current fee for your claim with the Registry before filing, because the Mithof figure is a 2023 case figure.

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified advocate for advice on your specific situation.

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