The deal that nearly paid the wrong person
Picture this: a buyer’s agent from Agency B closes a resale deal in JVC. The listing was held by Agency A, the two teams agreed a 50/50 split over WhatsApp, Form F is signed, the buyer’s cheque is handed over, and Agency A collects the full 2% plus VAT. A week passes. Then two weeks. Agency B is still chasing. Agency A’s accounts team says they are “processing.” The buyer’s agent did the work, brought the client, sat through the negotiation, and is now watching the commission sit in someone else’s account with no signed document that legally compels the other side to release it.
This is not a rare story. It happens constantly across Dubai’s secondary market, and it happens precisely because agents who know the deal mechanics inside out sometimes treat the split agreement as an afterthought — something to sort out after the client has paid. That choice is the root of almost every co-broke dispute in this city.
Understanding how Dubai regulates who can receive a commission is not just a compliance exercise. It is the foundation of getting paid.
What the law actually regulates
Real estate brokers in Dubai are governed by RERA pursuant to Bylaw 85 of 2006, which regulates the real estate brokers register in the Emirate of Dubai. Bylaw 85 prohibits brokers from engaging in real estate brokerage activities unless they are duly licensed and registered in the broker register maintained by RERA.
That is the bedrock. Everything about commission entitlement flows from it.
The law does not fix or cap commission rates. Bylaw No. 85 of 2006 sets out who may act as a broker, how brokers must be registered, and when they become entitled to be paid — but it specifies no commission percentage and imposes no ceiling. The 2% on resale sales and the 5% on annual rent are market convention, not statute. 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.
This distinction is important for practising agents because it means the question “how much?” is genuinely contractual, while the question “who can be paid at all?” is strictly regulatory.
The licence requirement is non-negotiable
To lawfully earn commission on a Dubai transaction, an agent must hold an active RERA broker card and work under a brokerage that holds a valid Dubai trade license. An unlicensed individual cannot legally broker a deal or collect a fee, and the listing itself must carry a valid Trakheesi permit number to be advertised at all.
A real estate licence cannot exist independently and must be linked to a licensed brokerage. An individual agent operating as a freelancer — not linked to a registered brokerage — cannot legally receive commission, regardless of how much work they put into a deal. Brokerage agreements executed by unlicensed agents are legally void. The Dubai Courts generally deem commission claims unenforceable if the broker lacks a valid RERA card. You cannot demand payment for illegal commercial activities.
Every registered brokerage company is required to maintain a RERA registration certificate containing the brokerage licence number, validity period of the registration, and approved brokerage activities. Similarly, each individual broker must be registered with RERA and must possess a broker identity card containing its registration number, validity period, and name of the employer brokerage company.
In practical terms, this means commission flows to a licensed brokerage, not directly to a named agent as a private individual. The agent earns from their brokerage under whatever internal arrangement governs their split. The client pays the brokerage. This structure is not administrative box-ticking — it is the legal architecture that makes a commission claim enforceable.
Licences need to stay active
Brokers must undergo Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training and pay renewal fees every year to ensure their licence remains active. An expired broker card is not a technical formality. Working without a valid licence leads to blocked commissions and regulatory penalties. If your card lapses mid-deal, your entitlement to that deal’s commission becomes legally questionable, and you have handed the other side a potential argument to delay or refuse payment.
The forms that establish entitlement
The licence establishes the right to practise. The paperwork establishes the entitlement to a specific fee on a specific transaction. Dubai’s RERA form system is what connects the two.
The broker is required to register the signed brokerage agreement along with the execution of the DLD standard form contract — Form A, contracted by broker and seller, or Form B, contracted by broker and buyer.
- Form A is the listing agreement between the selling agent and the seller. It records the agreed commission, the property details, and the scope of the mandate.
- Form B is the buyer representation agreement. It records the agreed commission the buyer has committed to paying and confirms which brokerage is representing them.
- Form F — the MOU — is the sale contract between buyer and seller, capturing the full terms of the deal.
Commission is not owed simply because an agent showed a client a property or answered their messages. It becomes legally payable only once a signed representation is in place and the transaction the agent was engaged to complete actually goes ahead. In Dubai that representation is documented on a RERA form generated through the Trakheesi permit system, and the form — not a viewing or a phone call — is what establishes the agent’s entitlement to a fee.
Brokerage laws in Dubai mandate that commission must be tied to a written agreement, often included in the Memorandum of Understanding. Once conditions of the contract are met, the commission becomes payable.
Agent commission — typically 2% of the sale price — becomes legally due upon Form F signing. Some agents collect at title transfer instead, but the regulatory consensus treats Form F as the moment the entitlement crystallises.
On the rental side, the same logic applies: the tenancy contract — registered through Ejari — is the document that confirms the deal has concluded and commission has been earned. Rental disputes in Dubai are handled by the Rental Disputes Centre (RDC) under RERA’s legal framework. If a commission dispute from a rental deal escalates, the Ejari registration and the signed tenancy contract are what a decision-maker looks at first.
VAT adds a layer agents cannot ignore
Brokerage commission is a service, so the UAE’s 5% VAT applies to the commission amount — not the property price. Do not assume residential rental commission is automatically VAT exempt. The residential lease itself may have a different VAT treatment, but the broker’s agency fee is a separate service. If the brokerage is VAT-registered and the service is taxable in the UAE, 5% VAT may be charged on the commission. Always ask for a tax invoice showing the broker’s TRN if VAT is added.
For agents, this matters in two directions: your invoice to the client must reflect the correct VAT position, and in a co-broke split where both agencies are VAT-registered, the inter-agency payment also carries VAT implications that should be addressed in the written split agreement before the deal closes.
How co-brokerage works — and why it breaks down
Dubai’s secondary market runs largely without exclusive mandates. Multiple agencies regularly carry the same listing, and it is entirely normal for a buyer’s agent from one firm to close a deal listed by another. This co-brokerage structure is not illegal or unusual — it is how most deals are done. But the regulatory framework that protects individual agents stops at the brokerage level. The law says who can receive commission. It does not say how two brokerages must split it between themselves.
That gap is where disputes live.
In cases where two agencies collaborate, the commission is split between them. This split is regulated through official RERA forms, ensuring transparency and compliance. The market practice is to document a co-brokerage arrangement, but the enforcement of that arrangement depends entirely on whether it was put in writing, signed by both parties, and agreed before the client paid.
When it is not — when the split is a verbal agreement, a WhatsApp message, or an assumption based on past practice — the receiving agency controls the money, and the referring agency’s leverage essentially evaporates the moment the client’s cheque clears. There is no regulatory body that automatically intercedes to split a commission that one licensed brokerage has already received. The dispute then becomes a civil matter between two businesses, not a RERA enforcement issue.
The “who introduced the buyer” problem
If several brokers are appointed for a potential property transaction by the client, it is only the broker who can successfully conclude the transaction that becomes exclusively entitled to commission. This principle, while logical in a clean single-agency deal, becomes genuinely contested in Dubai’s open-listing environment.
Consider the sequence: Agency A lists a property. Agency B shows it to a buyer. The buyer then contacts Agency A directly and buys without Agent B in the room for the final negotiation. Who earns the buyer’s commission? Who earns the seller’s side? Were both documented in advance?
Commission disputes are fact-specific — who introduced whom, what was signed, what was paid. Without a Form B signed before the viewing, Agency B has a weak claim regardless of how much work they invested. Without a written split agreement with Agency A before the buyer’s cheque was handed over, Agency B has even less to stand on.
The regulator can verify licences and confirm that the correct forms were used. It cannot retroactively assign commission entitlement to a party whose role was not documented at the time.
Off-plan: a different commission structure
The off-plan market operates on a fundamentally different commission structure, and agents who work across both secondary and primary inventory need to understand the distinction clearly.
Off-plan sales typically carry 0% buyer commission because developers pay brokers directly. On most primary off-plan launches the developer pays the brokerage, unless something else is agreed in writing. The developer’s commission obligation to the brokerage sits outside the client-facing fee structure. The buyer does not pay a brokerage fee; the developer does, from the margin built into the unit price.
This changes the question of who is legally entitled to receive commission. In an off-plan deal, the entitlement is between the developer and the brokerage — and it depends on the brokerage having been the one to register the buyer and close the booking. Dubai Law 8 of 2007, the Escrow Law, is the foundation of off-plan buyer protection. It requires every developer to establish a project-specific escrow account at a RERA-approved escrow bank into which all buyer payments must flow. The developer’s commission payments to brokerages are separate from that escrow structure — they flow directly from developer to agency, not through the buyer’s escrow account.
Oqood is a digital platform for registering off-plan property initial sale agreements in compliance with applicable real estate regulations managed by RERA. Under the process, the developer first registers the project and obtains the necessary approvals, following which the buyer’s details and sale agreement are recorded with DLD. Upon completion of the registration, an Oqood certificate is issued as evidence of the purchaser’s rights in the off-plan property.
The brokerage that is recorded as having introduced and closed the buyer in the developer’s records is the brokerage that gets paid. In co-broke situations on off-plan — where one agency carries the developer relationship and another brings the buyer — the same principle applies as on secondary: the split must be agreed in writing before the booking is registered, because after registration the developer will pay only the agency on record.
What happens when commission is disputed
If a commission dispute arises, RERA’s Rental Disputes Settlement Centre handles the case. Having a written agreement is essential to win any dispute.
For disputes between brokerages over split commission, the Dubai Land Department regulates registered brokers and handles complaints about broker conduct — this is the route for unregistered practice, double-dipping, misrepresentation, or fee disputes with a brokerage.
The practical reality is this: RERA enforcement is effective at penalising clear regulatory violations — unlicensed practice, advertising without a Trakheesi permit, misrepresentation. It is less effective as a tool for recovering a co-broke split that was never put in writing. A complaint without documentary evidence gives the regulator very little to act on.
RERA rules for real estate agents in Dubai specify how commissions must be set up and reported. Brokerage fees must be agreed upon in writing and included in contracts for transactions. Brokers cannot charge fees that are not clear or take payments that are not theirs. That last point — “take payments that are not theirs” — is meaningful, but it requires evidence that the payment was agreed to be shared. An oral agreement, even between two licensed brokerages, is genuinely difficult to enforce.
If real estate agents in Dubai do not follow RERA rules, they could get fined, have their licence suspended, or lose it permanently. But a licensed brokerage that simply holds money and disputes a verbal split arrangement is not necessarily in breach of its licence conditions — it may simply be in a contractual dispute.
The post-dated cheque problem in rentals
Rental deals carry a specific timing risk that sale deals do not. Commission on a tenancy is typically paid at contract signing — before the tenancy even begins. The landlord’s agent and the tenant’s agent, if they are different people, face the same co-broke documentation problem as in sales. But in rentals, the commission cheque is often given to one agency at the same moment the tenant’s post-dated rent cheques are handed to the landlord. Everything happens at once, and if the split was not agreed in advance, the agent who holds the management relationship with the landlord controls the outcome.
The RDC Dubai is also referred to as the Dubai Rental Dispute Settlement Centre (RDSC). The Rental Disputes Settlement Centre (RDSC) resolves landlord-tenant disputes. For pure agent-to-agent commission disputes on a rental, the jurisdiction is less clear-cut — which is another reason the paper trail matters more, not less, in rental co-broke arrangements.
The paper trail that protects you
Working agents know the theory. The problem is execution under deal pressure: a buyer is ready to sign, the listing agent wants to move fast, and the split conversation feels like it can happen after Form F. It cannot — not safely.
The regulatory framework creates a clear hierarchy of documents. Every element of who is entitled to what should be locked before the client pays:
- Form A is signed before the property is marketed, recording the selling agent’s fee.
- Form B is signed before the buyer views, recording the buyer’s agent’s fee.
- The inter-agency split agreement — whether on a formal RERA co-brokerage form or a written agency-to-agency letter signed by both principals — is agreed before Form F is signed.
- Form F locks the overall commission amount. The split document locks who receives what portion of it.
- VAT invoices are issued by both agencies to each other as appropriate, reflecting each side’s share.
The DLD manages the registration of property transactions and enforces rules on commissions, ensuring payments are made according to signed contracts. The department also collects transfer fees and verifies brokerage licensing, keeping real estate brokerage fees transparent and compliant.
The DLD can only enforce what is written and signed. Courts can only enforce what is written and signed. RERA can only investigate what is documented. An agent who relies on trust, market custom, or a WhatsApp message is not protected by the regulatory framework — they are hoping the other side behaves well.
Verify before you co-broke
Only agents holding a valid RERA broker card can receive referral fees. Before any split agreement is entered into, it is worth spending two minutes on the DLD portal to confirm the co-broking agency’s ORN is active and the individual agent’s BRN is current. A split agreement with a lapsed or suspended brokerage may not be enforceable, and — more immediately — if the other agency’s licence is in question, DLD may freeze any commission payment to them, trapping the whole deal.
The principle that removes the friction
Everything in Dubai’s commission regulation points in one direction: entitlement is established by documents, and those documents must exist before the money moves.
The licensing regime ensures that only qualified, registered professionals can legally receive commission. The form system — Form A, Form B, Form F, Ejari in rentals — ensures that the entitlement of each registered professional to a specific deal’s fee is recorded before the deal concludes. The VAT framework ensures that fee payments between parties are invoiced and traceable.
What the framework does not do is automatically sort out the split between two cooperating agencies. That is left to the agents themselves, and the agents who do it well share one habit: they agree the split in writing, signed by both parties, before the client pays a dirham.
The logic is simple. Once the client’s money has been received by one party, the incentive structure changes. The receiving agency has the cash. The referring agency has a conversation. Getting that money out requires either goodwill or a legal process, and both are slower and more expensive than a signed piece of paper agreed before the deal closes.
The agents who wait the least for their money are the ones who treat the co-broke agreement as part of the deal structure itself — not an afterthought, not a trust exercise, but a document. Signed. Before Form F. By both principals. Specifying the amount, the VAT treatment, and when payment is due.
That is what the regulatory framework is built around: documentation creating entitlement. The agents who understand that and build it into every deal — not just deals where they suspect a problem — are the ones who get paid on time, every time, without chasing.
