The moment Form I should exist — and usually does not
Picture a buyer’s agent at a viewing in Jumeirah Village Circle. They have a signed Form B in their file, a motivated client, and a deal that wants to happen. The listing belongs to an agent at a different brokerage. The two agents spend two hours at the property, they agree on a split in the car park — fifty-fifty, let’s go — and they shake hands.
Six weeks later, when the seller’s manager’s cheque has been handed over and the commission has cleared into the listing brokerage’s account, the buyer’s agent is waiting for the phone call that tells them their half has been transferred. The call either comes late, comes short, or does not come at all.
The argument that follows is about one thing: there is no document that proves what was agreed. The handshake conversation happened. The verbal fifty-fifty existed in both agents’ memories. But RERA’s framework does not run on memory. It runs on forms.
Form I is an agreement between two agents who act on behalf of the buyer and the seller. The form protects the agent’s rights, listings, and clients. That is the official summary. What it does in practice is something more specific, and more valuable: it converts the car-park conversation into a document that RERA and the Dubai courts can actually use. Nothing else does that. Not a WhatsApp message, not a voice note, not a witnessed handshake. Form I is the instrument — and the moment it is skipped is the moment the dispute begins.
What Form I actually is
Under the purview of the Dubai Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), a division of the Dubai Land Department (DLD), Form I plays a crucial role. It not only regulates real estate transactions but also monitors their transparency. Moreover, Form I serves as a preventive measure against potential disputes regarding commissions, ensuring a streamlined and conflict-free process.
An efficient real estate market should ensure that agents across the industry can work collaboratively together in a professional manner. For this reason, RERA created Form I, which is used when two RERA-certified agents agree to work together. A Form I ensures that both agents’ listings and clients are protected and promotes agents working together, regardless of which real estate company they represent.
The form itself is not a long document. It captures the essentials of the working relationship between two licensed professionals on a single transaction. Essential details to be filled in include: names and personal information of the involved agents; company names and their representation; office addresses and contact details; specifics about the real estate: address, developer, complex name; and the agreed-upon purchase price or rental rate.
Form I governs the relationship between two agents working on the same transaction — one representing the seller and one representing the buyer. This form establishes how the agents will collaborate, share information, and divide the commission.
Form I confirms which agent introduced the buyer and how commissions will be shared. It records the property details and permit number, contact details of both agencies, buyer acknowledgment of both brokers’ roles, and the commission-split agreement — commonly fifty-fifty.
That last line is important. The split is not assumed. It is not the industry default that two agents might nod at over coffee. It is a written number, agreed and signed, referenced to a specific property and a specific transaction. That is the only version that counts.
Where Form I sits in the deal timeline
Every co-broke transaction in Dubai involves at least four documents. Form A governs the listing side — it is the seller-broker agreement that authorises an agent to market and sell a property and defines commission and listing terms. Form B governs the buyer side — it is the buyer-broker agreement that appoints an agent to search and negotiate property on behalf of a buyer. Form F is the MOU — it is the contract of sale between the buyer and seller, confirming the deal in writing once the price and terms have been agreed. And Form I sits between the two agents, creating the bridge between those two sides of the deal.
The timing of Form I is not arbitrary. Form I comes into play when a buyer’s agent identifies a suitable property that is listed by a different agent. Before the buyer’s agent can arrange viewings, share the property’s details, or participate in negotiations, both agents must sign Form I.
The key principle is that Form I should be in place before the agents start actively working together on the same deal, sharing property details, arranging viewings, or negotiating. This reduces the likelihood of informal or unrecorded arrangements that could lead to disputes.
This timing point is where most friction originates. The practical reality of the Dubai market is that agents often send property details across WhatsApp before any form is signed. They arrange viewings on trust. The conversation about commission happens informally — before anyone has a pen out. By the time the deal is progressing toward a Form F, the window to formalise the split has often been missed, or the parties have different recollections of what was agreed.
The correct sequence is not complicated: Form A first, which gives the listing agent their mandate from the seller. Form B for the buyer, which gives the buyer’s agent their authority. Form I before any active collaboration — viewings, price negotiations, sharing of full property documentation. Form F when the buyer and seller agree on price and terms. It is important to complete Form I. If the agreement is not signed, the agents cannot legally interact with each other in the sale.
The commission landscape Form I operates in
To understand why Form I matters, it helps to be clear about the commission environment it regulates.
The standard commission for secondary market (resale) property transactions in Dubai is 2% of the transaction value. This is regulated by RERA and is the baseline for most transactions. An extra 5% VAT is charged on top of the commission amount. If the listing agent and selling agent are from different brokerages, the 2% is typically split fifty-fifty — 1% each. But that default is a convention, not a rule. The actual split is whatever the two agents put on the form.
For rentals, 5% of the annual rent goes to the broker’s commission fee. When two agents are involved on opposite sides of a lease, the same Form I logic applies: the split between the listing agent and the tenant’s agent must be documented.
For off-plan properties, the commission may vary depending on the project, developer, and brokerage agreement. Typically, the range is between 2% to 8%. Developer-paid commissions on off-plan have their own mechanics — the developer pays the registered brokerage, not the buyer — and when a referring agent co-brokes an off-plan deal, the arrangement for how the registered brokerage will pass the agreed share to the co-broke agent needs to be documented clearly. Form I, signed at the outset, is the mechanism that prevents the referring agent from being told, after the sale, that the developer’s commission hasn’t cleared yet, or that the split was always intended to be different.
Off-plan also introduces the regulated escrow environment. Developers in Dubai are legally required to hold buyers’ payments in a dedicated off-plan escrow account governed by the relevant real estate law. That escrow account is a legal protection for buyers, not a payment mechanism for agent splits. Commission on an off-plan project flows from the developer to the brokerage separately, which is why the inter-agent split agreement must live in Form I rather than being assumed to follow automatically from the developer’s payment.
RERA, under the Dubai Land Department, regulates broker licensing and requires commission details to be clearly disclosed in contracts, ensuring transparency. Every contract must clearly state the rate and payment terms upfront. If several agents share work on one property, the total commission is split between them according to agreed roles from the start. Clear terms prevent disputes.
How disputes actually start
The disputes that Form I is designed to prevent follow a recognisable pattern. They do not usually start because one agent is dishonest. They start because the two agents had different understandings of the same conversation, or because one agent’s management did not know about the other agent’s involvement, or because the listing brokerage received a single commission payment and then had to decide — internally, without a binding document — how much to pass across.
Before 2007, Dubai’s property market operated with minimal standardisation. Disputes arose from verbal agreements, unclear commission structures, and unverified listings. RERA’s form system was built precisely to close those gaps. Form I is the gap-closer at the agent-to-agent level.
The failure modes are consistent:
No form signed before the deal moved forward. The two agents agree verbally. The deal closes. The listing brokerage pays the listing agent’s brokerage. The buyer’s brokerage expects a transfer. The listing brokerage says they never agreed to that amount, or that it was a different percentage, or that their management doesn’t recognise the agreement made by the agent on the ground. Without a signed Form I, the buyer’s agent has no document to present.
Form signed too late. Some agents sign Form I at or after the Form F stage, essentially formalising a split that has already been verbally agreed through the course of a deal. This is better than nothing, but it opens a window where one party could retrospectively contest the split, claiming the actual collaboration began on different terms before the form existed.
Split recorded incorrectly. The form is signed, but the percentage was noted down in a rush and doesn’t reflect what was actually discussed. One agent believes it was sixty-forty in their favour because they had already done two rounds of viewings and price negotiation. The other agent signed a form that says fifty-fifty. The form is what it says, not what was intended.
VAT not addressed. Both buyers and sellers need to confirm that VAT costs are included properly in payments, and must verify that all agent participants are VAT registered. The same principle applies between agents. If one brokerage is VAT-registered and the other is not, the split documentation needs to account for whether VAT is being charged on the commission share being passed across. An unclear Form I that doesn’t address VAT treatment will create an accounting argument at the point of payment.
One client, both agents, one commission. In some transactions — particularly where a listing carries only buyer-paid commission rather than separate payments from each side — the total commission comes in as a single sum to the listing brokerage. Splitting that pot requires a clear prior agreement. Without Form I, the referring agent is asking for a portion of money that is already sitting in someone else’s account. That is a much weaker position than having a signed document that says the money was theirs before it arrived.
What the Trakheesi system adds — and what it does not
After Form A has been signed, it will be approved by the DLD’s Trakheesi system, which will assign the property advertisement a permit number. That permit number is what makes a listing advertisement legal in Dubai. An agent advertising a property without a valid Trakheesi permit is breaching RERA regulation, and RERA has progressively tightened enforcement on this.
The permit number is relevant to Form I because it connects the Form I — the inter-agent agreement — to the specific, registered listing. When a buyer’s agent signs Form I referencing a particular property and its Trakheesi permit, they are signing onto the regulated transaction, not a side arrangement. This is meaningful if the deal ever goes to RERA’s dispute resolution process. RERA will review the evidence — Form A, Form B, communication records, viewing confirmations — and issue a ruling. If either party disagrees with RERA’s ruling, the case can be escalated to the Dubai Courts.
What the Trakheesi system does not do is automatically document the inter-agent split. That documentation exists only in Form I. Trakheesi knows who holds the listing mandate. It does not know that the buyer’s agent from a different brokerage was promised half the commission. That agreement lives — or fails to live — in Form I.
For Ejari rental transactions, the same principle holds. The Ejari system formalises the tenancy contract between landlord and tenant — Ejari is a system that formalises rental agreements in Dubai, giving tenants and landlords assurance that their tenancy is legally binding and that their rights are protected. When a listing agent and a tenant’s agent collaborate on a rental deal, Ejari registration covers the tenancy. It does not cover the split between the two agents. That is Form I’s job.
How Form I protects both agents, not just one
A common misconception is that Form I exists to protect the weaker party in an inter-agent deal — usually the referring agent, who has less control because the commission flows through the listing brokerage. That is part of what Form I does. But it protects both agents.
For the listing agent, Form I defines the buyer’s agent’s authority and role. It prevents a situation where the buyer’s agent later claims a larger share than was agreed, or where the buyer directly approaches the listing agent and the buyer’s agent retrospectively demands a referral fee they were never entitled to under any signed document.
For the buyer’s agent, Form I is the proof of the split, the proof of their involvement, and the only document that makes their claim to commission enforceable in a RERA or court proceeding.
Form I is a formal contract that ensures both real estate agents involved in a transaction understand their roles, commissions, and legal responsibilities. It helps prevent disputes and guarantees compliance with Dubai’s real estate regulations.
One of the most sensitive aspects of any transaction is the agents’ commissions. When two agents are involved, there must be clarity on who is entitled to which commission, and whether each agent is paid by their own client or whether there is a sharing arrangement.
Without Form I, the answer to those questions is a memory, a WhatsApp conversation, or a manager’s cheque stub that says nothing about how the money should flow. None of those work in a RERA dispute. Form I is what works.
The payment mechanics Form I sets in motion
The commission split agreed in Form I is a document. But documents don’t move money automatically. In practice, the standard payment flow in a Dubai secondary-market transaction runs as follows: the buyer’s commission is paid by manager’s cheque to the listing brokerage at or around the time of the Form F or the DLD transfer. The listing brokerage then transfers the agreed share to the buyer’s brokerage, which then processes the individual agent’s portion according to that brokerage’s internal split structure.
That chain — from the client’s cheque to the listing brokerage, then across to the buyer’s brokerage, then down to the individual agent — is where delay accumulates. Each link in the chain is a potential hold point. The Form I is the document that authorises the transfer between brokerages. Without it, the listing brokerage has no clear obligation to transfer anything to the referring brokerage. With it, the amount, the recipient, and the trigger event are all recorded.
Commission should always be paid by cheque made out to the brokerage, not to the individual agent personally. This is a RERA requirement and it creates a paper trail that protects both parties if a dispute arises later.
This matters for VAT compliance too. Agents must issue VAT-compliant invoices. When a referring brokerage is due a share of commission, they should issue a tax invoice to the listing brokerage for their portion. That invoice needs a number to reference — and the number is the split agreed in Form I.
Why the split conversation must happen before the deal, not after
The practical temptation is to defer the formal conversation about commission until the deal is close to completing. Both agents are motivated, the deal is alive, and neither wants to risk disrupting the relationship by pushing for paperwork early. The split will be agreed when it needs to be. No one is going anywhere.
This logic fails consistently. The moment the Form F is signed and the buyer’s commitment is locked in, the leverage balance shifts. The listing brokerage knows the deal is done. The buyer’s agent, whose client is now legally committed, needs the deal to close at least as much as anyone else. This is precisely the wrong moment to be negotiating the inter-agent split from a blank starting point.
The single most effective way to avoid commission disputes is to sign Form A or Form B before any property viewings begin. The same principle applies to Form I. Sign it before the viewings. Sign it before the negotiations. Sign it before the clients are emotionally committed to the deal. At that stage, the conversation is clean, both agents are still equals, and nothing is at stake except the paperwork.
This reduces the likelihood of informal or unrecorded arrangements that could lead to disputes.
Verbal agreements are extremely difficult to enforce in Dubai. The RERA dispute resolution process runs on documents. The DLD’s system is built around registered forms. A well-presented case at RERA that has Form I, Form A, Form B, viewing records, and a communication trail will almost always resolve faster and more favourably than a case built on reconstructed WhatsApp screenshots and conflicting recollections of a car-park handshake.
Form I in the context of RERA’s dispute process
When an inter-agent commission dispute reaches RERA, the first question is what documentation exists. When there is a dispute, and a transaction is documented using the appropriate RERA form, the agreement becomes enforceable under UAE law. The inverse is equally true: when the appropriate form is missing, enforcement becomes difficult, slow, and fact-dependent in a way that benefits whichever party controls more of the paper trail.
The Rental Dispute Settlement Centre handles disputes between landlords and tenants about the terms of tenancy. 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 the tenancy, such as disputed payments recorded against the rent, the RDSC may become relevant too.
For pure agent-to-agent commission disputes — the kind Form I is designed to prevent — the path runs through RERA’s own complaint and dispute resolution process, and potentially to the Dubai courts if RERA’s ruling is contested. Commission disputes are fact-specific — who introduced whom, what was signed, what was paid. A signed Form I resolves the first two questions immediately. That alone shortens the dispute significantly.
The principle that resolves everything up front
There is a version of every co-broke deal where no one waits, no one argues, and no one is chasing a transfer that should have happened three weeks ago. That version of the deal exists because the split was agreed in writing before the first viewing, both brokerages knew about it before the Form F was signed, and both sides were paid at the same time from the same transaction — cleanly, documented, done.
That outcome is not complicated. It requires one signed form, at the right time, capturing the right details. Don’t proceed with viewings or offers until all forms are signed. Always keep a clear commission agreement in writing — Form I.
The friction in Dubai inter-agent deals is not structural. The market co-brokes constantly, productively, and at high volume. An efficient real estate market should ensure that agents across the industry can work collaboratively together in a professional manner. The friction is procedural: it lives in the gap between the verbal agreement and the signed form, and it compounds through every stage of the deal until, by the time the money arrives, no one is quite sure what was supposed to happen.
The solution is not a better argument after the fact. It is a signed Form I before the first viewing — one that specifies the split, references the permit number, identifies both agencies by name, and gives both sides a document they can rely on. When every party is paid at the same time, from the same closing event, against a split that was agreed and signed before anyone had a stake in the outcome, the dispute never starts. That is what Form I is for — and that is the standard worth holding to on every shared deal.
