You Booked a Dubai Rental Car for a Friend and Now Face the Bill

A Dubai rental-car dispute is not answered simply by showing that your friend was driving. If you signed the rental agreement, its terms may leave you responsible for additional hire and other properly established charges. Separate the question of who is contractually liable from whether each item on the bill is supported.

This guide is for the person who booked a car for someone else and now faces an extended hire, damage or traffic-charge demand, including where the agreement selects the DIFC Courts. Prepare a charge ledger before replying: the contractual item, period or incident, amount, supporting document, payment already credited and reason for any dispute. Keep the complete signed agreement beside it.

Key takeaway. Saying that someone else used the vehicle is not the same as showing that your contractual liability ended. But accepting that you signed does not require accepting an unexplained total.

What is the first check in a Dubai rental-car disputed-charges case?

Find every page of the rental agreement, not just the page showing the daily price. Identify the named renter, signatory, permitted driver, deposit provider and person who paid. Those roles may overlap, but do not assume they do. The contract may explain who is responsible if an additional driver fails to pay.

Then check how the agreement was presented and accepted. Was there a signed second page, a link to terms, a booking confirmation or a later extension? Preserve the version received at the time. A current website page may not prove what was agreed for a past rental.

Record the vehicle's identifying details and the agreed beginning and end of hire. If several cars were exchanged during the booking, keep a separate movement record for each. Otherwise a toll or damage item from a replacement vehicle can be incorrectly matched to the wrong inspection or return record.

Do not begin with a universal assertion that only the driver can be sued. The company's contractual claim and a public authority's action concerning a traffic offence are different matters. This guide concerns the rental bill and does not decide responsibility for a traffic offence or any administrative process attached to it.

The immediate objective is to make the demand testable. Ask the rental company to identify which clause and evidence supports each charge. A request for the complete agreement and itemised account is more useful than repeatedly stating that you were doing a friend a favour.

What did the DIFC rental-car judgment decide?

The amended judgment in Naila v Nakir [2024] DIFC SCT 269 concerned a person who rented a vehicle for a friend. The friend kept the car beyond the original booking. The signatory argued that the additional rent and other charges should be directed to the friend instead.

The SCT read the agreement and rejected that defence. At paragraphs 11 to 15, it held the signatory responsible under the terms before it and awarded the claimed sum. The case demonstrates why the identity of the actual driver does not necessarily replace the person bound by the rental contract.

It does not establish that every charge made by every rental company is valid. Nor does it make the service-fee amounts quoted in that particular agreement universal legal tariffs. The article therefore uses the decision for the contractual-liability point, not as a current list of permissible Dubai charges.

Your comparison should identify both similarities and differences. Did your contract contain the same kind of responsibility clause? Did the company approve another driver or transfer the rental into that person's name? Was there a clear release of your obligations? Put the actual documents in front of the adviser instead of assuming an informal conversation changed the contracting party.

Did the company agree to replace you as the renter?

Distinguish permission for your friend to drive from agreement to release you from the contract. An additional-driver entry may address use of the vehicle without changing who owes the rental charges. A separate new agreement may have a different effect. The wording and surrounding communications need reading.

Ask for the point at which you say your responsibility ended. It might be return and closure of the first agreement, execution of another agreement or an express written release. A message saying your friend will handle payment is not necessarily the same as the company agreeing that it will no longer look to you.

Check who requested the extension and how the company responded. Preserve whether the discussion referred to the original booking or a new one. If the company dealt directly with your friend after your stated end date, that is evidence to analyse, but it does not automatically prove substitution or release.

Also preserve your own instructions. If you authorised the friend to keep the car longer, disclose that. If you objected and asked for return, retain the message and the company's response. A careful account can acknowledge what happened while still disputing an excessive period or unsupported item.

Any separate reimbursement arrangement with the friend should be assessed separately. A promise by the friend to pay you may be relevant between you and the friend without defeating the rental company's rights. Do not assume that a claim against one person automatically disposes of the other relationship.

How should the additional rental period be reconstructed?

Put the agreed return date, every extension request, actual return event and company collection or inspection time on a single chronology. Identify the contract's treatment of late return, out-of-hours drop-off and receipt of keys. Do not choose the earliest convenient timestamp without reading those terms.

A photograph in the company's car park may establish where the vehicle was at a particular moment, but it may not establish that the keys were handed over or the company accepted return. Conversely, an inspection carried out later does not by itself prove the renter retained possession until inspection. Ask for the actual return and acceptance records.

Where dates differ, state the competing accounts clearly. For example, you may have a dated key-return message while the company records closure the next morning. Ask what happened between those events and which contractual rule produces the extra charge. Do not turn a disagreement of hours into an unexplained claim for several days.

Check the rate used for the disputed period. A promotional booking, extension rate and default daily rate may differ under the contract. Ask which term the company relies on, whether its conditions were met and whether the calculation matches the dates. This is a contract-specific inquiry, not approval of any particular late-return rate.

Record concessions and credits too. If the company agreed to remove one day, make sure it was removed from the final demand rather than only acknowledged in a chat. The final account should be reproducible from the chronology and rate, without relying on the company's unlabelled total.

What proves damage rather than an unsupported repair charge?

Start with the condition records at collection and return. Keep the original photographs or videos, the inspection sheets, any recorded existing defects and the details identifying the vehicle. A close-up of a crack without a date or vehicle context may be difficult to connect to the rental.

Ask when the damage was identified, who inspected it and what work was proposed or performed. Distinguish an estimate, repair invoice and receipt. Those records answer different questions. The legal measure of a recoverable charge still depends on the contract and applicable law, rather than on whether the largest available estimate was attached.

If the allegation concerns smell or cleaning rather than visible damage, request the inspection account and contractual basis. Do not treat the absence of a photograph as automatically deciding a condition that cannot be photographed. Equally, a generic cleaning fee with no explanation may require a more specific response.

Check for overlap. A damage sum, cleaning charge, loss-of-use claim and administrative fee might arise from the same event but require different bases. Ask how each is calculated and whether the account duplicates an amount already included elsewhere. Do not silently concede the entire bundle because one scratch is accepted.

A factual response can admit a recorded defect while challenging its attribution or cost. Avoid broad accusations that all damage is fabricated unless there is evidence. Preserve any record showing the defect existed at collection and explain exactly which photograph or inspection entry supports your position.

Also collect any insurance or damage-waiver documents supplied with the booking. Ask whether the company submitted a claim, received a payment or says an exclusion applies because of the driver or use. Do not assume that a product described at the counter as full cover eliminates every charge, or that the company can ignore an actual insurance receipt when preparing the account. The wording, identified insured risk and payment history need their own review. Where a report or notification was required, preserve what was actually submitted and when, without reconstructing a favourable document after the event. This is a request for the relevant evidence, not a conclusion about coverage under an unseen policy.

How should tolls, fines and service charges be separated?

Request the individual underlying entries with dates, vehicle identification and amounts. Match them to the period for which you are said to be contractually responsible. An aggregate line saying traffic charges gives too little information to distinguish an actual toll, a fine and the company's own administrative fee.

Keep the public charge separate from any fee the company adds under its terms. Naila quoted contractual service charges, but the judgment does not turn those figures into a general statutory tariff. Do not copy the case's numbers into a current dispute as if they settle whether your company's fee is lawful.

If a charge occurred outside your claimed hire period, identify the date conflict rather than simply deleting the item. The company may contend that return occurred later or that the charge was posted after the event. Distinguish the event date from the date it appeared on the account.

Where a government process needs an individual response, obtain appropriate current guidance. A contractual dispute with the rental company is not a reason to ignore a notice from the competent authority. This article does not provide traffic-appeal deadlines, licence advice or black-point procedures.

The ledger should allow someone else to follow the calculation.

Bill component	Supporting record	Reconciliation question
Additional hire	Extension and return chronology	Do the dates and contractual rate match?
Damage or cleaning	Condition records and cost evidence	What happened, when and at what supported cost?
Toll or public fine	Underlying event entry	Does it relate to this vehicle and relevant period?
Company service fee	Accepted term and calculation	What separate contractual basis is asserted?
Payment or deposit credit	Actual receipt and account allocation	Has it been credited once and accurately?

Does a payment screenshot prove the account was paid?

Not necessarily. In Naila, the reasons recorded an attempted app payment and a screenshot, but the amount was not received by the rental company. That factual distinction matters where your friend says payment was made and the company says its account remains unpaid.

Obtain the transaction status and reference, recipient details and any reversal or rejection. A transfer instruction, completed debit and receipt into the nominated account are different records. Ask the sender and recipient to trace the same transaction rather than sending the same screenshot repeatedly.

If the payment went to a different account or was returned, record that accurately. Do not tell the company it has the money without evidence. If the company received it but allocated it to another invoice, ask for the allocation record and correction. Keep the original demand so that later credits can be checked against it.

Where a card issuer is also involved, keep the contractual dispute and payment-processing inquiry separate. A bank's investigation or reversal does not itself determine every legal issue under the rental agreement. Follow the relevant process on accurate facts and obtain advice where the consequences are unclear.

These three distinctions should already appear in your file.

How should the deposit be accounted for?

Identify whether the transaction was a card hold or an actual payment, and obtain the record showing its present status. Use the agreement's deposit provisions to understand what the company says it may apply against charges. Do not assume the word deposit describes the same banking event in every booking.

Request a closing account showing the opening deposit, charges applied, payments received, credits and balance requested or returned. A demand should not ask for the full charges while ignoring money already retained against them. Equally, do not count a released card hold as cash paid to the company.

Keep any promised reconciliation or release date from the actual agreement or later correspondence. This guide does not state a universal deposit-return period for all Dubai rentals. If the company says it is waiting for later charges, ask for the contractual basis and the remaining specific items.

Separate the agreed and disputed parts. You may accept that a toll is correctly recorded but challenge a repair bill. A partial resolution should identify what was paid or credited and what remains contested. Avoid a vague message accepting a final account if you intend to preserve a particular dispute.

If the company sends a revised statement, compare it with the previous one line by line. Check that a removed item has not reappeared under another description. Keep a simple version history so that you can explain the current balance without rebuilding every calculation from the start.

Why might a Dubai rental dispute be heard in the DIFC Courts?

In Naila, the agreement selected the DIFC Courts while stating that UAE law as applied in Dubai governed the contract. Paragraph 9 records that distinction. A court-selection clause and a governing-law clause answer different questions. Do not import DIFC substantive contract rules merely because a dispute is heard in the DIFC.

For a current jurisdiction review, Dubai Law No. 2 of 2025, Article 14(B), addresses civil and commercial claims and applications where the parties expressly agree in writing to DIFC Courts jurisdiction through specific, clear and express provisions. The agreement may be made before or after the dispute arises. Read the actual agreement and the complete applicable jurisdiction framework before filing.

RDC 53.2 then addresses the SCT's routes for claims within DIFC Courts jurisdiction. The ordinary monetary route covers claims not exceeding AED 500,000. Its additional written elective route for non-employment claims has separate conditions, including the stated AED 1 million ceiling. Do not treat the SCT threshold as creating underlying jurisdiction.

If your agreement selects a different forum, do not assume you can use the DIFC because another rental case was heard there. The Dubai and DIFC section keeps these forum distinctions visible. Obtain advice before choosing a procedure or ignoring a claim served in the selected court.

What should you do if proceedings have already arrived?

Preserve the documents and record the actual service details. Read the stated response requirements and obtain advice promptly. Do not rely on your friend to handle the case simply because the friend used the vehicle. If you are the named defendant, make sure the response is addressed through the proper procedure.

A defence should distinguish the legal-liability issue from disputed figures. Identify any contractual release, contested period, missing credit or unsupported damage item with its evidence. A general statement that you were not the driver may leave all of those more specific points unanswered.

If you already sent the company an email, do not assume it counts as a court response. The separate guide on replying outside the court process addresses that risk. Use the actual case documents and current rules to establish what is required in your case.

Common mistake. Asking the company to sue your friend does not answer the claim against you. Check your own contractual position and challenge unsupported charges in the proper response.

For a proposed settlement, identify the exact booking and charges resolved, treatment of the deposit and the balance, if any. Do not assume payment of a negotiated sum closes later items unless the agreement addresses that scope. Keep the settlement confirmation and receipt together.

What should the final review file contain?

A short indexed file should tell the story from booking to final account. Put the agreement first, followed by the movement chronology, condition evidence and charge ledger. Keep the friend's payment or reimbursement records separate so that they do not obscure what the rental company received.

1. Identify the contracting renter, driver and accepted terms.
2. Reconstruct extensions, return and any claimed change of contracting party.
3. Match hire, damage, tolls, fines and service fees to their supporting records.
4. Trace every payment and deposit credit to actual receipt or release.
5. State the specific disputed items and request a corrected account.
6. Check the governing law, forum and any procedural deadline before choosing the next step.

For related but different contract problems, the equipment-hire charges guide concerns imported equipment, and the equipment termination guide concerns exit payments. Their conclusions should not be pasted into a personal car rental without examining this agreement.

Before sending the file for advice, ask someone unfamiliar with the booking to follow one disputed row from the contract to the invoice and supporting record. If the link is missing, identify the missing document explicitly. That is more useful than adding another page expressing the same frustration.

The completed review should distinguish these outcomes.

Sources checked on 29 September 2026. Naila is the amended judgment published on 12 September 2024. No universal rental fee, traffic deadline or consumer-rights waiver is asserted here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I be liable even though my friend drove? Yes, depending on the agreement. Naila held the signatory liable under the terms before the court despite the friend's use.

Does adding a driver release the person who signed? Do not assume so. Examine whether the company agreed to replace or release the contracting renter, not merely permit another driver.

Must I accept every item because I signed? No. Ask for the contractual basis, dates, evidence and credits for each disputed charge.

Does a transfer screenshot settle the payment issue? Not necessarily. Trace the transaction status, recipient and actual receipt. Naila recorded a screenshot without receipt by the company.

Are the service fees in Naila mandatory Dubai tariffs? No. They were terms of that agreement, not a universal statutory price list.

Does a return photograph settle the final rental day? Not alone. Read the return terms and compare the photograph with key handover, acceptance and other contemporaneous records.

Does a DIFC court clause mean DIFC law governs the contract? Not necessarily. Naila's agreement selected the DIFC Courts and separately specified UAE law as applied in Dubai.

Can I leave the court claim to my friend? If you are named, ensure the proper response is made. Do not assume a private arrangement with the driver answers proceedings against you.

This article is general information and does not constitute legal advice. For a rental account or court claim, consult a qualified advocate.

Related Guides

Our DIFC commercial contracts page covers payment, suspension, termination, guarantees and shareholder disputes under DIFC-law agreements.

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