The scene every agent in this market recognises
The call comes in on a Thursday afternoon. A buyer’s agent from another brokerage has a qualified client sitting in the office — cash buyer, proof of funds ready, wants to move fast. The property they want happens to be one you’re holding on a non-exclusive Form A. The other agent pitches a 50/50 split, you agree on the phone, send the client to a viewing, and by Sunday evening the Form F is signed.
Three weeks later, the transfer completes. Your agreed split exists only as a voice note and a WhatsApp message. The other agency processes the full commission from the seller and goes quiet. You follow up. You get promises. Then silence. Then a story about what the agency principal agreed with the client. You’re looking at a dispute you could have prevented in about forty minutes of paperwork before the first viewing.
That is the texture of the problem. Not villainy — just a gap between an informal agreement and a legally enforceable one, and that gap swallows commission every week somewhere in this city. This checklist closes it.
Before you agree to anything: confirm the mandate is real
When another agent approaches you to co-broke a shared listing, the first question is not about the split. It is whether the listing itself is clean.
A non-exclusive mandate means the listing is shared across multiple brokers simultaneously, each holding a valid Form A and marketing independently. That is the norm in this market. What is not always the norm is that every Form A in circulation is current, accurately priced, and genuinely authorised by the seller.
Before you bring a client to any shared listing, confirm these points:
- A valid, active Form A exists — signed by the seller and the listing agent’s brokerage. Only RERA-registered brokers operating under a DLD-licensed brokerage may sign Form A.
- The Trakheesi permit number is real — every advertised listing must carry one. Listings that appear without a valid Trakheesi number are non-compliant and subject to immediate removal, broker fines, and potential suspension of the brokerage’s licence. Ask for the number, and check it.
- The listed price matches reality — non-exclusive arrangements often result in inconsistent pricing across portals and duplicate listings. If the same unit appears at three different prices on three portals, clarify the seller’s actual instruction in writing before you proceed. Bring a buyer to a property at the wrong price and you own that conversation.
- The Form A has not expired — the validity period is specified within the agreement itself; common periods range from three to twelve months, and upon expiration, if the property remains unsold, a new Form A must be signed. An expired Form A means the listing agent is technically no longer authorised to market, and any split agreement built on top of it is fragile.
Once the listing is confirmed as clean, move to the agreement between agents.
The document that protects your commission: Form I
Form I governs the commission split and professional conduct when two brokers collaborate — one representing the buyer, one the seller. It is not optional and it is not excessive paperwork. It is the only legally grounded document that records your right to be paid.
Form I comes into play when a buyer’s agent identifies a suitable property 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. This protects the listing agent’s client relationship, ensures the buyer’s agent receives their agreed share of commission, and prevents disputes about who facilitated the sale.
Read that again: before viewings. Not after the client is interested. Not after the Form F is signed. Before the first showing.
If a dispute arises between two agents over who is owed what, the agent without a signed Form I is in a very weak position. A WhatsApp thread is not Form I. An email thread is not Form I. A voice note is emphatically not Form I.
When two agents are involved, there must be clarity on who is entitled to which commission, whether each agent is paid by their own client or whether there is a sharing arrangement, and how the commission is linked to the successful completion of the transaction. Form I helps structure this by documenting the cooperation between agents. While the exact commission percentages and payment sources are agreed between the agents and their respective clients — and recorded in other forms such as Form A, Form B, or Form F — Form I ensures that the agents themselves are aligned and that there is a written record of their collaboration.
That last sentence is the key. Form I sits alongside the other RERA forms; it does not replace them. It is the agreement between agents about how they are working together. Everything else — what the client pays, to whom — still flows through Form A, Form B, and Form F.
What Form I must specify
When you are filling in or reviewing a Form I before co-broking a shared mandate, these points must be explicit, not implied:
- The exact property, with address and permit number
- Both brokerages’ DLD licence details and the named agents involved
- The agreed split — as a percentage and, where possible, as an approximate dirham figure based on the expected commission
- Buyer acknowledgment of both brokers’ roles
- The trigger for payment — typically completion of transfer at DLD, not signing of Form F
- Who collects the total commission from the client and within what timeframe they must disburse the co-broking agent’s share
If the Form I in front of you does not specify when and how you get paid — not just that you will be paid — push back before you sign. Vague Forms I are just slightly more formal versions of a handshake.
Your buyer’s documentation: Form B before the viewing
If you are the buyer-side agent in a co-broke arrangement, Form B is your protection on the client relationship side. Form B is a buyer’s agent agreement, where a buyer engages a qualified RERA-certified agent to find a suitable property based on their needs and financial status. This agreement ensures that the agent works exclusively for the buyer.
Verbal agreements are extremely difficult to enforce in Dubai. If your buyer goes around you — contacts the listing agent directly after you introduced the property — your claim to commission rests almost entirely on whether you have a signed Form B and a signed Form I. With both, your introduction is documented and timestamped. Without them, you are arguing from memory against someone else’s paperwork.
The sequence, stated plainly: Form B before the client sees any property. Form I before the client sees this specific property on a shared mandate. Both must exist before negotiations begin, not after.
Commission structure on a shared mandate: what the numbers actually mean
Dubai does not legislate a real estate commission rate. RERA licenses and regulates brokers but does not mandate the fee, so the 2% and 5% figures are industry custom.
That means the rate in your signed documentation governs what you are owed — not what someone told you on the phone, and not what the market “usually” does. Brokerage fees must be agreed upon in writing and included in contracts for transactions. Brokers cannot charge fees that are unclear or take payments that are not theirs.
On a secondary market resale with a shared mandate, the commission pool is typically 2% of the sale price, paid by the buyer, split between the listing agent’s brokerage and the buyer’s agent’s brokerage. A commonly documented split is 50/50. But that is not universal, and what matters is what your Form I says.
On an off-plan unit with a shared mandate, the structure differs. In Dubai’s off-plan property market, the standard brokerage commission paid by buyers is 0%; the developer compensates the agent directly, allowing buyers to invest without incurring agency fees. This means the commission flows from the developer to the registered referring brokerage. If you are the agent who brought the buyer, but the developer’s records only show the listing brokerage, your ability to collect your share depends entirely on the internal agreement between agencies — which, in a shared mandate situation, must be documented before the client is registered with the developer’s sales team. Off-plan co-brokes where the split is left to a gentleman’s agreement after developer registration are the single most common source of agency-versus-agency disputes in this segment. Get it in writing first.
VAT: the compliance item most agents forget
A real estate agent in Dubai typically charges 2% of the purchase price on a property sale and 5% of the annual rent on a residential lease, and 5% VAT is added on top of that commission in both cases.
In a co-broke deal, both the listing agency and the buyer’s agency are earning a taxable supply if they are VAT-registered. This has practical consequences that agents often overlook until the deal is done:
Each agency must issue its own VAT-compliant tax invoice. The commission the buyer’s agent receives from the listing brokerage is not the buyer’s agent’s client payment — it is an intercompany payment between two businesses. If both brokerages are VAT-registered, the disbursing brokerage needs a proper invoice from the receiving brokerage before it can account for that payment. If the receiving brokerage is not yet VAT-registered because it hasn’t hit the threshold, that also needs to be clear upfront.
Settling this before the deal closes prevents a situation where the listing agency refuses to disburse until it has a valid tax invoice — which it may legitimately require under UAE VAT regulations — and the buyer’s agent, who never thought to prepare one, is now chasing an invoice as well as a payment.
The checklist item is simple: before the viewing, confirm both brokerages’ VAT status and agree in the Form I whose invoice obligation is whose at point of payment.
Rental deal specifics: Ejari and the post-dated cheque reality
A shared mandate on a lease is structurally the same — listing agent, tenant’s agent, agreed split — but the commission mechanics and the compliance obligations have a different texture.
Ejari, meaning “My Rent” in Arabic, is a mandatory registration system established by Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority. It ensures that all rental contracts are officially recorded, providing legal protection for both tenants and landlords. Ejari registration is not optional and it is not something to leave until after the commission is collected. Ejari registration is mandatory for all rental properties, including commercial and residential properties.
In the rental context, the practical compliance checklist before co-broking a shared mandate includes:
- Confirm the listing agent holds a Form A (or equivalent rental mandate) from the landlord, and that the property is genuinely available at the listed price
- Agree and sign the commission split between agencies before any viewings
- Ensure the commission agreed with each client — landlord and tenant — is documented in writing
- Confirm who is responsible for registering the tenancy contract with Ejari after signing, because the landlords, tenants, and their representatives are all authorised to apply, but registering the tenancy contract is the responsibility of the landlord — and if neither the listing agent nor the tenant’s agent follows up, the Ejari simply does not get done, which affects the tenant’s ability to use government services and creates liability for the brokerage that processed the deal
On post-dated cheques: rental commission in Dubai is frequently tied to the collection of the tenant’s cheques. If the tenant is providing a one-cheque payment and the commission is expected at the point of lease signing, that is clean. If the tenant is on multiple cheques, confirm in writing which event triggers your commission disbursement — handing over the cheques, or the landlord clearing the first cheque. Ambiguity here causes real delays, especially when the listing agency is holding all the cheques and disbursing commission on its own timeline.
Verifying the other agent’s licence before you co-broke
This is due diligence, not mistrust.
Only RERA-licensed brokers and agents can legally earn commission in Dubai. Using an unlicensed individual puts your transaction at risk. If you co-broke with an unlicensed agent or an agent whose broker card has lapsed, you are transacting in a grey area — and if something goes wrong, your paperwork is only as strong as the regulatory standing of the other party.
All licensed agents must hold a Broker E-card, issued via Trakheesi. It proves the agent passed RERA training and is allowed to handle property transactions. Ask for the E-card number and verify it. The DLD’s systems allow this check, and it takes less time than any viewing.
On the brokerage side: confirm the agency you are co-broking with holds a current DLD brokerage licence. An agent may be licensed personally but may be working for an agency whose licence has lapsed or been suspended — a situation that is more common at smaller operations than the market would like to admit. Your Form I is signed between brokerages, not between individual agents. If the counterparty brokerage is not in good standing, the contract itself is on unstable ground.
When payment stalls: understanding where in the deal it goes wrong
Even when Form I is signed and the deal completes, commission disputes in co-broke situations tend to cluster around a few consistent failure points. Recognising them in advance means you can address them contractually before they happen.
The listing agency delays disbursement. The full commission comes in from the buyer or the developer, sits in the listing agency’s account, and the buyer’s agent’s share is released slowly, in instalments, or with deductions that were never agreed. This is the most common complaint. The fix is to specify in Form I the exact number of days post-transfer within which the disbursement must happen, and what the receiving agency’s recourse is if that window is missed.
The split changes after the client commits. The listing agency comes back and says the seller renegotiated the commission, or the developer is paying less than expected, and therefore the split needs to be revised. If Form I was signed with a fixed split and a floor figure, you have a document to point to. If it was signed with a percentage of “whatever the developer pays,” you are exposed to exactly this conversation.
The introduction is disputed. After the deal completes, the listing agency claims the buyer was already in their system, or that a different referral was the operative one, and your co-broke entitlement therefore does not apply. In Dubai’s cooperative brokerage ecosystem, multiple agencies often work together, and Form I confirms which agent introduced the buyer and how commissions will be shared. A Form I signed before the introduction — not after the client showed interest — and combined with a Form B bearing the same client’s details, makes this argument very difficult for the other side to sustain.
The deal does not complete. The Form F is signed, but the buyer withdraws and forfeits their deposit. Under Dubai real estate law, a buyer who withdraws from a signed Form F without legal justification forfeits their deposit, typically 10% of the purchase price. The seller retains this amount as compensation and can proceed to resell the property. The forfeited deposit usually covers any agent commissions owed, protecting the seller from out-of-pocket losses. The question in a co-broke situation is whether that protection extends to both agents or only to the listing agent. Make this explicit in Form I: what happens to the split if the deal falls before DLD transfer.
If a dispute reaches the formal stage
Despite everything, some disputes escalate. For rental-related commission disputes, the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre (RDSC) is the judicial body that resolves landlord-tenant conflicts in Dubai, operating under the Dubai Land Department. For agent-to-agent disputes that arise from a rental transaction, the RDSC is the relevant forum. 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 sales transaction disputes — which is where most co-broke disagreements sit — the matter goes before the relevant judicial authority, and the strength of your case is determined almost entirely by your paperwork. Every RERA form is legally binding the moment it is signed. This means the terms, obligations, and commission agreements written into these documents are enforceable under Dubai law. An agent cannot fall back on verbal agreements or informal understandings once a deal is underway. The paperwork defines everything.
That is both the challenge and the solution, stated plainly by the framework itself.
The complete pre-mandate checklist, in sequence
Before you take — or give — a shared mandate, work through this in order:
On the listing itself:
- Form A is valid, signed, and current — not expired, not verbal
- Trakheesi permit number exists and can be verified
- Property price is consistent with the seller’s actual instruction
- The property exists and is genuinely available (no ghost listings)
On your licences:
- Your broker card is current under Trakheesi
- The co-broking agent’s broker card is current
- Both brokerages hold valid DLD brokerage licences
On the client-side documents:
- Form B signed by your buyer before any viewing
- Client identity and, in higher-value transactions, proof of funds confirmed before you invest in multiple viewings
On the agent-to-agent agreement:
- Form I signed by both brokerages before the first viewing
- Split specified as a percentage and an indicative dirham figure
- Clear trigger event for payment (DLD transfer, not Form F)
- Clear timeline for disbursement after the trigger event
- VAT invoicing obligations between brokerages agreed and recorded
- Consequence of deal failure before transfer agreed and recorded
On the rental side additionally:
- Ejari registration responsibility clearly allocated
- Commission trigger tied explicitly to cheque handover or other agreed event
The principle that removes the friction
Every point on this checklist is, at root, an expression of one idea: that the commission split must be agreed, signed, and triggered by a single, clearly defined event — and ideally collected at the same moment by both parties, without one side depending on the other’s goodwill to release what was already earned.
When the split is vague, one party will define it in their favour when the pressure is on. When the trigger is undefined, payment gets tied to whenever it is convenient for whoever is holding the money. When one agent depends on the other to disburse, the relationship between those two agents becomes the weakest link in the transaction — weaker than the client relationship, weaker than the contract with the seller, weaker than the Form F.
The agents in this market who have fewest co-broke disputes are not the ones who trust their co-broke counterparties least. They are the ones who built the paperwork so that trust was never required in the first place. The split was on paper. The trigger was defined. The payment happened at the moment of transfer, from a source both parties could see, in the amount both parties had already agreed.
That outcome does not require a clever system or a new piece of technology. It requires doing the forty minutes of paperwork before the first viewing, every single time, without exception. The agents who do it never stop. The agents who skip it do it once more than they intended to.
