The moment most agents skip — and spend months regretting
Picture the scene. You have a buyer who is ready. Your colleague at another agency has a property that fits. You message each other, agree on a showing, and the client walks through the door. The buyer loves it. Offer goes in. Form F gets signed. Then comes the question nobody thought to answer before the client ever saw the unit: who is getting paid what, and who is paying it?
That single skipped conversation is where the majority of inter-agency commission disputes in Dubai are born. Not in the negotiation. Not at transfer. Right at the start — in the gap between “let’s work together” and “let’s put it in writing.”
This article is about closing that gap. Not with paperwork for paperwork’s sake, but with a clear, professional conversation that happens before the first viewing — and a signed record of what was agreed. Do that once, consistently, and the rest of the deal flows far more cleanly.
Why the Dubai market makes this conversation harder than it looks
Dubai’s secondary market runs largely on shared listings with no universal exclusive mandate. Unlike markets where a seller signs one agency to one contract and all co-operating agents work under a declared structure, the Dubai norm is open listing — multiple agencies may hold the same property, often with different landlord forms (Form A), different advertised prices, and different assumptions about what split, if any, will be offered to a co-operating agent.
When multiple agents are involved in a single listing, the commission is typically split among them. That sentence sounds straightforward until you ask: split by how much? Agreed where? Paid by whom? Paid when?
There is no law in Dubai that sets or mandates a real estate commission rate. RERA regulates who may act as a broker and how they must conduct a transaction, but it does not fix the fee. The 2% and 5% figures are market convention that the industry has settled on, which means the rate in your signed agreement, not a government tariff, is what governs the fee you owe.
That matters enormously. Because it means every number on the table — the gross commission, the split ratio, who pays it — is a matter of what was agreed between the parties. If nothing was agreed in writing, you are arguing from memory and WhatsApp screenshots in a dispute forum months later.
When two brokers collaborate on a deal, the commission structure must be agreed upon in advance. Without a clear agent-to-agent agreement, many agents end up in costly disputes or losing their commission entirely.
What the forms actually tell you — and what they leave out
Dubai has a layered form structure that most working agents know well. Form A, Form B, and Form F work together as a single contractual framework around a transaction. Form A records the relationship between the seller and the broker, defining the listing terms and the broker’s commission. Form B defines the engagement between the buyer and the broker, typically covering search, viewing, and offer submission.
Commission must be agreed in a written contract — Form A, B, or I, depending on the deal.
That last form — Form I — is the one agents most frequently skip, and the one that matters most when two agencies are working the same deal. Commission agreements between agents — for instance, when a buyer’s agent and a seller’s agent split a fee on a co-broke deal — are governed by RERA Form I, which must be formally signed before any commission is disbursed.
This prevents the informal arrangements that create disputes in less regulated markets and gives both parties a documented, enforceable position.
The issue is not that agents don’t know Form I exists. Most do. The issue is the moment it gets signed — or rather, the moment it doesn’t. The listing agent sends it across after the offer is accepted, or after the Form F is signed, or in some cases, after the client has already paid. By that point, the negotiating dynamic has shifted. The co-operating agent has already delivered their buyer. Their leverage to insist on a fair split or a specific payment structure is weaker than it was before the first viewing.
The safest rule is simple: commission is payable only when the relationship, rate, service scope and payer have been agreed in a written broker document.
The same logic applies to Form I. It should exist before the relationship produces anything of value — not after.
The conversation itself: what to cover, and in what order
The commission conversation with a co-operating agency is not a long one. Most experienced agents can cover it in five minutes. The discipline is having it before anything else happens. Here is what needs to be settled:
1. What is the gross commission, and who pays it?
Before you agree any split, you need to know what you are splitting. This sounds obvious. It is not always clear.
On a typical secondary-market sale, the buyer conventionally pays 2% of the agreed sale price plus 5% VAT. But the market is not always typical. In a typical resale transaction, both the buyer and seller have their own agents. Each party pays their own agent 2%. However, the market reality is more nuanced: the buyer pays their agent 2% — this is the most common arrangement and is almost always expected. The seller pays their listing agent 2% — agreed upon in Form A.
Where only one gross commission exists and two agencies are sharing it, the total pot is smaller, and both agents need to know that before they walk a client through the door.
On rentals, in rental transactions, it is usually the tenant who pays 5% of the annual rent to the broker. Again — if two agencies are splitting that 5%, both need to know the gross figure before agreeing a split ratio.
If two agents cooperate, the commission split should be agreed between them and should not become a surprise extra cost for the customer. Never assume “the other side is paying” unless it is written in the offer, form or invoice.
2. What is the split ratio, and what is it based on?
In Dubai, there is no official law dictating the exact split for agent-to-agent commissions, but the following are commonly accepted standards: sale transactions usually see a 50/50 split of the total commission. Rental transactions usually see a 50/50 split, but sometimes negotiable depending on the effort involved. Exclusive listings sometimes see the listing agent offer a smaller split — for example 60/40 — if they have exclusive rights.
The split ratio is always a negotiation. What determines a fair split in practice? The inputs each party is bringing. The listing agent may have the seller relationship, the Form A, the property history, and the key. The buyer’s agent may have the qualified, finance-ready buyer and the offer letter. Neither side should assume the ratio without discussion, and neither should accept “we’ll sort it out when the deal closes” as a substitute for a number agreed in writing today.
Where the property is an open listing held by multiple agencies, the listing agent’s leverage is lower. Where they have something genuinely exclusive — an off-market seller, a landlord relationship no other agency has — their negotiating position for a better split is stronger. Know what you are bringing, know what the other side is bringing, and agree the number before the viewing.
3. What triggers payment, and when does it actually happen?
This is the question that creates the most cashflow anxiety — and the most disputes. There are typically two trigger points in a secondary-market sale: Form F signing and DLD transfer.
Form F is signed after the initial agreement is reached but before the ownership transfer takes place at the DLD trustee office. Agent commission — typically 2% of the sale price — becomes legally due upon Form F signing.
The legal agreement also outlines the 10% deposit, penalties for breach, broker’s commission (if any), and follows DLD and RERA rules to keep the transaction aligned and protected.
In practice, if a deal falls through after the MOU is signed, the agent may still claim their commission. Payment timing: even when commission is “earned” at MOU, payment may be structured as a portion at MOU and the remainder at transfer.
This split-payment timing matters enormously when two agencies are involved. If the buyer’s agent is owed their portion at MOU but the listing agency holds the cheque until transfer — or, worse, holds it pending some internal approval process — the buyer’s agent is exposed to a delay that was never part of the original agreement. That misalignment needs to be settled up front.
The question to ask your co-operating agency before the viewing: When exactly does my portion get paid, and what does that payment depend on? Get that answer confirmed in writing alongside the split ratio.
4. Who holds the commission cheque, and how does it get split?
In most Dubai deals, the client pays one agency — typically the buyer pays the buyer’s agent, and that cheque is made to that brokerage. Where a co-operating agency is involved, the gross commission may still land in one brokerage’s account, with the expectation that a portion is wired or cheque-transferred to the co-operating agency.
This is where the delay lives. The listing agency receives the commission. They may have their own internal processes: manager sign-off, accounts department, director approval. None of those processes are your client’s problem, but they become your cashflow problem if the arrangement was not explicit from the start.
The right structure — agreed in advance — is that both agencies know precisely when they will receive their portion, and that this timing is tied to when the client pays, not to when the other agency’s internal process completes.
VAT: the number that changes the math
All commissions are subject to 5% Value Added Tax under UAE law. That applies to agency fees on sales and commercial rentals. When you are agreeing a split, always clarify whether the ratio applies to the gross commission inclusive or exclusive of VAT — and who issues which tax invoice to the client.
Agents must issue VAT-compliant invoices. Where two agencies are involved, the client should receive the appropriate invoice from the agency they are paying, and each agency’s internal split should reflect the correct VAT treatment on their portion.
This is not a conversation for after the deal closes. If you discover mid-transfer that the other agency was computing the split on a different figure than you were — one inclusive, one exclusive of VAT — you have a dispute over a number that was never properly set.
Off-plan: a different commission structure, a different set of risks
Off-plan transactions work differently. For off-plan purchases direct from a developer, the developer typically pays the agent, so the buyer often pays no separate commission.
The commission structure, timing, and any co-operating arrangement between agencies depends on the developer’s own terms — documented in the agency’s registration with that developer. Brokerages routinely handle developer co-broking agreements, RERA-regulated commission caps, performance-tiered split structures, project-specific bonus schemes, and multi-agent team deals — all simultaneously.
The key point for the commission conversation in off-plan: the developer’s terms govern the gross commission, and those terms may restrict or structure any inter-agency split. If you are bringing a buyer to another agency’s project registration, the split they can offer you is bounded by what the developer allows. Know that number before you invest time in the introduction. The conversation to have is not “what will you give me?” but “what does the developer allow you to give me, and can we document that before I make the introduction?”
Off-plan commission is also frequently tied to payment milestones — not to a single transfer event. Off-plan payment plans in Dubai typically require an initial deposit, followed by milestone-linked instalments during construction, with the balance due on handover. Developer commission schedules sometimes mirror this structure. If your portion of the commission is paid in tranches linked to those milestones, you need to know that before you introduce the client — not when the first milestone payment is overdue and you are chasing an account you never formally agreed.
It is also worth being precise about what “escrow” means in this context. Dubai’s Law No. 8 of 2007 mandates that buyer instalments are paid into a project-specific escrow account held at a RERA-approved bank, never into the developer’s general operating accounts. That protection is for the buyer’s purchase funds — it has nothing to do with your commission. Your commission sits entirely outside that framework and is paid according to whatever the developer’s agency agreement specifies. Do not confuse the two.
Ejari rentals: the post-dated cheque trap
Rental transactions carry a different timing issue. In Dubai’s residential rental market, the tenant typically hands over post-dated cheques for the full year’s rent at lease signing. In rental transactions, it is usually the tenant who pays 5% of the annual rent to the broker, and this payment is due once the lease agreement is signed.
The commission cheque — also frequently post-dated — can sit in the agency’s account for weeks before it clears. If a co-operating agency is expecting a portion of that commission, and the holding agency is waiting for the cheque to clear before sending anything across, the co-operating agent can be waiting on money they effectively earned the day the tenancy agreement was signed and the Ejari was registered.
The conversation to have on a shared rental deal: is the commission cheque being deposited immediately, or is it post-dated? When will the other agency transfer the split? What if the cheque bounces? None of those are hostile questions. They are professional ones. An agency that cannot answer them clearly before a viewing is not an agency that has thought through its end of the arrangement.
Why the dispute starts where it does
Commission disputes between Dubai agencies are not usually about bad faith. Most of them are about ambiguity — a split agreed informally, a payment timing never specified, a VAT calculation done differently on each side, a gross commission figure one party thought included the manager’s cut and the other assumed was net.
Commission disputes are fact-specific — who introduced whom, what was signed, what was paid.
When a dispute does escalate, the process is real, slow, and expensive. Complaints to the DLD/RERA are possible — the Dubai Land Department regulates registered brokers and handles complaints about broker conduct, including fee disputes with a brokerage. The Rental Disputes Centre handles landlord-tenant disputes about the tenancy itself. Broker conduct sits with DLD/RERA — but if a commission mess has spilled into a tenancy, the RDSC may become relevant too.
Getting there — preparing documentation, attending hearings, waiting for outcomes — takes time no active agent can afford to spend. And the evidence that wins those cases is exactly the documentation that should have been signed before the first viewing: a Form I with a clear ratio, a clear trigger point, and a clear payment date.
Proper documentation and proof of communication are essential in these cases.
That is not hindsight. That is the lesson built into every dispute that could have been prevented.
What “before the viewing” actually means in practice
The commission conversation is not a long one. It is five focused minutes before the client is ever introduced to the property. It covers four things: gross commission, split ratio, payment trigger, and payment timing. It results in one document: a signed Form I with those figures on it.
RERA’s primary rule regarding commission is that an agent cannot claim a fee unless they have a signed contract authorizing them to represent the property. The Form I extends that logic into the agent-to-agent relationship. No signed Form I, no documented position. No documented position, no enforceable claim.
Always write the agreed commission rate in the contract to prevent future misunderstandings or disputes. That principle — write it down — is not bureaucratic caution. It is the professional standard that separates agents who get paid from agents who argue about getting paid.
Relying on verbal agreements, not discussing commission split until late in the process, assuming a 50/50 split without confirmation, and working with agents who refuse to sign Form I are the mistakes that end careers and client relationships.
The principle worth building on
The cleanest deal is one where every party who is owed money knows exactly what they are owed, has signed a document that proves it, and receives their portion at the same moment the client’s payment clears — not weeks later, not after an internal approval chain, not after a phone call to chase what was never formally committed.
That outcome is achievable on every deal. It requires one conversation, one form, and one decision: to have the commission discussion before the client sees the property, not after they have fallen in love with it.
When the split is agreed, documented, and each party is paid at the same time from the same transaction, nobody is waiting on somebody else’s process. Nobody is filing a complaint. Nobody is spending the next three months chasing a cheque that represents work they finished in week one.
That is the standard worth setting — for every shared deal, from the first message to the final transfer. The agents who build their business on that standard tend not to have commission disputes. They tend to get paid.
