The cheque is on the table. So is the argument.
The transfer goes through. The buyer and seller shake hands at the trustee office. The clients are happy. Then one agent turns to the other and says, “So how are we splitting this?”
That sentence — asked after the deal — is where commission goes to die.
It is not a rare scenario in Dubai. When multiple agents are involved in a single listing, the commission is typically split among them. This can sometimes complicate the transaction, so clear agreements should be in place from the start. The problem is that many agents treat the split as an afterthought — something to sort out when the money is in the room. By then, leverage has shifted. The clients have their keys. The urgency is gone. And whoever has the cheque has the power.
This is the real handover risk. Not the NOC delays or the mortgage approval timelines — those are process friction. The commission dispute is a money leak you created yourself, by not closing the financial loop before you closed the deal.
Why the split conversation happens too late
When two agents are involved in a transaction — a listing agent representing the seller and a buyer’s agent representing the buyer — the commission needs to be split between them. How that split works determines a lot about how each agent behaves during the deal.
Dubai runs on a shared-listing culture with no requirement for exclusive mandates. An agent can hold a Form A with the seller, another agent finds the buyer, and they’re suddenly in a co-broke relationship that neither of them formally agreed to before viewings started. The deal moves fast, the buyer commits, Form F gets drafted, and both agents are congratulating themselves before anyone has put anything about the split in writing.
The most common structure in Dubai is what’s called a co-brokerage arrangement: the buyer pays 2% commission to their agent, the seller pays 2% commission to their agent, and each side pays their own agent directly. That’s the cleanest structure — each agent is financially accountable to the party they’re representing. The problem is that this isn’t always how it plays out in practice.
Sometimes the buyer’s agent has a Form B that entitles them to 2%, but the seller is also paying a single commission out of which the listing agent is expected to pay the co-broker. Sometimes neither agent has documented who introduced the buyer, or when. Sometimes the listing agent’s agency takes the full fee and the co-broker is left chasing an internal arrangement that was only ever verbal.
Each of these situations is entirely avoidable. But they keep happening because agents conflate the closing rush with the commission conversation. By the time the deal closes, the conversation is happening under pressure, with fewer tools.
What Form I is and why it keeps getting skipped
When an agent comes across a listing managed by another broker, the two agents can sign a Form I — a broker-to-broker agreement that outlines how they’ll split responsibilities and commission. It’s important to ensure the form reflects everything discussed — property type, location, and price range — so that expectations are aligned from day one.
In Dubai’s cooperative brokerage ecosystem, multiple agencies often work together. Form I confirms which agent introduced the buyer and how commissions will be shared. It typically records the commission-split agreement, the buyer’s acknowledgment of both brokers’ roles, and the commission-split arrangement — commonly 50/50.
When two brokers collaborate — one representing the buyer, one the seller — Form I governs the commission split and professional conduct. It is not optional guidance; it is the standard RERA mechanism for documenting exactly this situation.
So why does it get skipped? Because it requires both agencies to have the uncomfortable conversation about who gets what before either of them knows whether the deal will close. There is a very human temptation to avoid that conversation until you have to have it. By then, the leverage has already moved.
Form I ensures fair cooperation and eliminates disputes between agencies. That is not marketing language — that is its functional purpose. An unsigned Form I is a dispute waiting for a venue.
What the forms actually protect — and what they don’t
Understanding the form stack in a secondary-market deal matters here, because each form protects different things and the gaps between them are where money leaks.
Form A is the formal agreement between a property owner and a real estate brokerage. It is the first step in any legal secondary-market transaction. RERA’s primary rule regarding commission is that an agent cannot claim a fee unless they have a signed contract — like Form A with the seller or Form B with the buyer — authorising them to represent the property.
Form F is the Contract of Sale between the buyer and seller — often referred to as the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). It serves as the definitive agreement between the buyer and seller, capturing every material term of the deal: the property details, the agreed price, the payment schedule, the transfer timeline, penalty clauses, and the agent’s commission. Once signed by all three parties — buyer, seller, and agent — Form F is registered with the DLD through the agent’s brokerage. This registration is what gives the document its legal weight.
In a sales transaction, commission detail is captured in Form F. It outlines the agreement between the buyer and the seller, explicitly states the commission percentage to be paid to the broker, and once signed, this fee becomes a legal obligation upon the successful transfer of the property.
Here is the critical gap: Form F records the commission owed to the agent of record. It does not automatically resolve how a co-broker gets paid. That is Form I’s job — and if Form I was never signed, the co-broker’s entitlement is oral. Oral is not a legal instrument in Dubai real estate. If a commission dispute arises, RERA’s Rental Disputes Settlement Centre handles the case. Having a written agreement is essential to win any dispute.
This means you can be the agent who found the buyer, conducted every viewing, negotiated the price, and shepherded the client to the transfer — and still walk away with nothing if you cannot show a signed Form I that records your entitlement.
The VAT gap most agents underestimate
Commission must be agreed in a written contract — Form A, B, or I, depending on the deal. Agents must issue VAT-compliant invoices.
VAT at 5% applies to agency fees on sales transactions and on commercial rentals. On residential rentals, the commission itself is generally not subject to VAT, but the moment your agency crosses the VAT registration threshold, the invoicing obligation applies to applicable services. The point here is simple: if your commission invoice is wrong — wrong entity, wrong VAT number, wrong amount — payment can legitimately stall. The other agency’s finance team will kick it back. The deal has closed, you are waiting for a transfer that should take days, and it takes weeks because a piece of paper is wrong.
This is not the other agency’s problem. It is yours to fix. The correct invoice — with your agency’s registered details, the correct VAT treatment, and the amount that matches the signed Form I — should be ready before transfer day, not drafted afterwards in a WhatsApp message.
Always write the agreed commission rate in the contract to prevent future misunderstandings or disputes. That principle extends to the invoice: the number on your invoice must match the number in the signed agreement. Any discrepancy gives the paying party a reason to delay, and delay often turns into something worse.
Off-plan deals: a different timing problem
Off-plan commission has a distinct structure that creates a separate timing trap. When a buyer purchases off-plan directly from a developer, the developer typically pays the agent’s commission out of its own marketing budget, so the buyer often pays no separate commission at all. That removes one friction point — no client invoice — but replaces it with a different one: the developer’s payment schedule and internal approval process.
Off-plan sales in Dubai are tightly regulated and cannot begin until the developer has completed a specific sequence of registration, escrow, and approval steps. The escrow law — Law No. 8 of 2007 — requires developers to open a dedicated, project-specific escrow account with a DLD-approved bank, deposit all buyer payments into that account, and withdraw funds only in stages linked to verified construction milestones. That regulated mechanism protects buyers. It does not, however, protect the agent’s commission timeline.
Developer commission payments are governed by the developer’s own agency agreement and their internal finance cycle — not by RERA’s brokerage rules. This means an agent who has sold three units in a launch can be waiting sixty, ninety, or a hundred and twenty days for commission from a developer whose accounts payable team requires a specific invoice format, a specific portal submission, and sign-off from a manager who is currently in Riyadh.
The protection here is pre-deal, not post-deal:
- Get the developer’s commission letter in writing before the launch event, not at it.
- Confirm payment terms — specifically the number of days from unit registration to commission payment.
- Ensure your agency’s preferred supplier status and banking details are registered in the developer’s system before the first unit is sold.
- Understand whether commission is paid on booking, on SPA signature, on Oqood registration, or on construction milestone. Developers vary. Assuming you know is how surprises happen.
If you are co-broking on an off-plan deal — one agency holding the developer relationship, another bringing the buyer — the split and payment flow must be agreed before the client sits down at the launch. Once the developer has registered the sale and the buyer’s Oqood certificate is issued, the developer will pay whoever their records show. If your agency is not in those records with a signed agreement, you are chasing the listing agency for your share, which is a harder position than you want to be in.
The rental deal: faster, but no less exposed
Rental transactions close quickly and agents sometimes treat them as lower-stakes. They are not. The commission exposure is different, not smaller.
At signing, the tenant hands over the agency commission alongside the cheques, security deposit, and admin fees, and the contract is registered on Ejari so the tenancy is official. A tenancy contract without Ejari registration has no legal standing in Dubai.
For the agent, the relevant risk is timing. The commission cheque — typically 5% of the annual rent on residential lettings — is collected at contract signing. The rental fee is often paid when the tenancy contract is signed, not after move-in. If you are the listing agent and a co-broker brought the tenant, the co-broker needs their share at that moment, not in three days when you get around to it. The commission has already been received.
Rental co-broke splits that are agreed verbally, settled later, and paid by bank transfer to a personal account are a clean recipe for disputes. The co-broker has no signed document showing what they are owed. The listing agent’s agency may not even know a split was agreed. The client has their keys, the post-dated cheques are with the landlord, Ejari is registered, and one agent is owed money they cannot prove on paper.
The fix is identical to the secondary-market fix: a written split agreement, signed before the tenant pays. The amount and the payment timing must be on paper. Both parties should know — at contract signing — how much goes where and when the bank transfer clears.
How disputes actually start
Commission disputes in Dubai rarely start as disputes. They start as ambiguity.
Commission disputes are fact-specific: who introduced whom, what was signed, what was paid. When those facts are clear — because they are in writing — disputes resolve quickly or do not start. When those facts are contested — because everything was verbal — the dispute metastasises into a RERA complaint, a Rental Disputes Settlement Centre filing, or simply a dead co-broking relationship and a reputation problem in a market where everyone knows everyone.
The most common disputes follow one of these patterns:
The introduction dispute. Two agents both claim to have introduced the buyer. The client met Agent A at a viewing, then later contacted Agent B directly and ended up going through them. Agent A has nothing signed. Agent A has nothing.
The split renegotiation. A 50/50 split was agreed verbally. After the deal closes, the listing agency decides the split should be 60/40 in their favour because they “did more work.” The co-broker has no Form I. The listing agency has the full commission cheque from the client.
The agency filter. The co-broker agreed their split with an individual agent at the listing agency, not with the agency itself. That individual agent then leaves the agency before commission is paid. The agency has no record of the agreement. The departed agent has the WhatsApp message but no employment status.
The invoice mismatch. The client paid commission to one agency. The co-broker submits an invoice. The invoice is for a different amount than what was verbally agreed. Both parties dig in.
Agents are required under RERA rules to disclose their commission arrangement to all parties. That transparency obligation is not just a compliance point — it is protection. When everyone in the deal knows what was agreed, the scope for later reinterpretation shrinks.
What “agreeing up front” actually means, in practice
The phrase “agree the split up front” sounds obvious. In practice, agents get busy, deals move fast, and the conversation gets deferred. Here is what up-front actually means in the mechanics of a Dubai deal:
On a secondary-market sale
- When a co-broker contacts you about a listing, do not allow viewings before Form I is signed. The form is not bureaucracy; it is the record of your entitlement.
- The Form I should specify: the exact percentage or amount each party receives, which party receives the client’s commission first, and the number of days in which the co-broker is paid after transfer.
- The Form I should be in place before the buyer views, not before the transfer. By the time you are at the trustee office, the buyer’s focus is elsewhere. Your financial arrangement should already be settled.
- Your VAT-compliant invoice should be prepared in advance and submitted to the paying party before transfer day. Payment should not be waiting on your admin.
On a rental deal
- Agree the split before the tenant viewing, not at contract signing. The conversation is easier when neither party has a cheque in their hand yet.
- Put the rental co-broke split in a brief written agreement — email confirmation at a minimum, signed document by preference.
- At contract signing, the receiving agent should immediately transfer the co-broker’s share or issue a payment commitment that same day. The commission cheque has cleared. There is no cashflow reason for delay.
On an off-plan deal
- Confirm the developer’s payment terms before the launch.
- If co-broking, sign your internal split agreement before the booking appointment. The developer pays whoever is registered; your inter-agency arrangement is separate and must be documented separately.
- Follow the developer’s submission process exactly. A wrong invoice number in a developer’s system can hold payment for weeks. The developer’s process is not the problem to fix — your compliance with it is.
The friction is structural, not personal
It is worth saying clearly: the delays and disputes described in this article are almost never the result of one party being dishonest. They are the result of a structural habit in the Dubai market — the habit of treating financial arrangements as secondary to the deal itself.
RERA sets guidelines for brokerage activities, including licensing real estate agencies and professionals and enforcing compliance. Agents must adhere to these regulations, and contracts between clients and agents should clearly outline the commission structure. The regulatory framework supports written agreements. The dispute resolution channels — RERA, the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre — exist for when those agreements are absent or contested. But those channels take time, cost goodwill, and damage relationships. The better investment is the twenty minutes it takes to put the split in writing before the first viewing.
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. That second sentence is the whole lesson. Assumptions are not enforceable.
The principle that changes everything
The agents who consistently get paid — quickly, in full, without drama — share one habit: they treat the commission agreement as part of the deal, not as the aftermath of it.
When the split is signed before viewings start, the co-broker’s entitlement is documented. When the invoice is ready before transfer day, there is no administrative excuse for delay. When each party is paid at the same moment the client pays — not in a sequence that depends on trust and memory — the friction disappears.
This is not about distrust between agencies. Most agents in this market are professionals who want to do right by their co-brokers. It is about recognising that goodwill is not a substitute for documentation, and that a verbal agreement between two agents who like each other today is exactly as enforceable as nothing at all if one of them changes their mind tomorrow, changes jobs next week, or simply remembers the conversation differently.
The transaction closes once. The paperwork lives forever. Signed, concurrent, clear — that is what keeps money on your side of the table.
