Handover and snagging: taking the keys to a new Dubai home

The completion certificate and your deed

A building is complete when its planning authority says so by issuing a completion certificate. Depending on the area that authority is the Dubai Development Authority, Trakhees or Dubai Municipality. Until the certificate exists the developer cannot hand over, whatever the marketing says.

Once it exists, Article 8 of Law No. 13 of 2008 requires the developer to enter the project in the property register and to register each sold unit in the name of the buyer who has met their obligations. That is the moment your Oqood registration gives way to a title deed. DLD's fee for issuing the deed is AED 250. If you still owe an instalment, settle it first, because the registration waits for buyers who have paid.

Before handover day

• Read the handover notice for what the developer asks you to pay: the final instalment, any administration charge, and the first service charge period
• Check the service charge against what the sale agreement said, and ask for the RERA-approved budget
• Confirm the DEWA connection process and whether a deposit is collected at handover
• Book a snagging inspection for a date before you sign the handover documents, not after

The developer's handover team will have an appointment system and a document list, usually your identification and proof that the final payment has cleared. Ask for the list in advance so the appointment is not wasted, and ask whether the keys are released on the day or after the deed is issued.

The snagging inspection

Snagging is market practice rather than a legal step, so nothing in the law forces the developer to wait for it. The developer's handover documents usually include an acceptance form, and once you sign it the leverage shifts. Inspect first. Walk every room with a checklist, or hire an inspector who does this for a living, and hand the developer a written, dated list with photographs.

1. Finishes.Walls, ceilings, floors, tiling, joinery, doors and windows. Look for cracks, chips, gaps, scratches and uneven lines.
2. Installations.Air conditioning, electrics, every socket and switch, water pressure, hot water, drainage and extraction, each tested while running.
3. Kitchen and bathrooms.Appliances, silicone and grout, taps and shower screens, waterproofing under and around wet areas.
4. Against the contract.Layout, size and specification checked against the sale and purchase agreement and the brochure you bought from.
5. Outside.Balcony drainage, railings, external doors and, on a villa, the boundary wall, garden drainage and the roof.

Agree a date for the developer to clear the list and a second visit to confirm it. Keep copies of everything. The one-year installation liability starts at handover, so the clock is already running once you take the keys.

How long the developer is liable

Both periods come from Article 40 of Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019, and the same article makes any agreement to the contrary void. A clause in your sale agreement that shortens them has no effect. Separately, the UAE's Civil Transactions Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025, holds contractors and engineers jointly liable for ten years for collapse or for defects that threaten a building's stability or safety, in Articles 821 to 824, in force from 1 June 2026.

Report defects in writing as soon as you find them, with dates, so that a claim inside the period is easy to prove.

Delays, defaults and cancelled projects

If the delay is yours, Law No. 13 of 2008 as amended by Law No. 19 of 2020 applies. After a 30-day notice served through DLD, the developer may terminate and keep up to 40% of the unit's value where the project is more than 60% complete, or up to 25% below that, and must refund the rest within a year or within 60 days of reselling the unit, whichever comes first.

If the delay is the developer's, the sale and purchase agreement governs. Read the clause on late completion before you sign, because it sets whatever compensation you are entitled to. If a project never starts for reasons outside the developer's control, or RERA cancels it, the developer must refund buyers' payments under the escrow law.

Selling before the keys

You can resell an off-plan home before completion. Under Article 3 of Law No. 13 of 2008 every such sale must be entered in the interim register, or it is void. The developer sets its own conditions for the resale NOC, written into the sale and purchase agreement, including how much of the price must already be paid. Selling property in Dubai covers the steps.

Ask the developer for its consent conditions and any administration fee in writing before you agree a price with a buyer. No deed changes hands; the Oqood record is updated to the buyer's name, and the deed is issued to them at completion.

Questions buyers ask