What a Rental Case Actually Costs at the RDC — and How Long It Takes

The basic court fee is 3.5% of the annual rent in your tenancy contract, with a minimum of AED 500 and a maximum of AED 20,000. Added to that are fixed charges — a AED 10 knowledge fee, a AED 10 innovation fee and a process-service charge of about AED 100 — plus AED 25 if you register a power of attorney and AED 130 + VAT if you file through a real-estate service partner. On a typical AED 40,000 tenancy the basic fee works out to about AED 1,400.

Yes. For a rent or eviction case the basic fee is capped at AED 20,000, so once the annual rent passes roughly AED 571,428 the fee stops rising and stays at AED 20,000. For a money-only claim the cap is AED 15,000. There is also a floor: the fee is never less than AED 500, which is what you pay when 3.5% of the rent would come out below that.

Partly, yes. Where a case seeking conciliation reaches a settlement, half of the basic court fee paid on the claim is refunded. This is a deliberate incentive to resolve the dispute early at the Amicable Settlement stage rather than push through to a full first-instance judgment. The fixed add-on charges are not the subject of that 50% refund; it applies to the basic fee.

Decree No. 26 of 2013 sets extendable statutory periods (15 days for conciliation, 30 days from referral for a tribunal to decide) rather than a guaranteed end date, and the pattern is predictable. Conciliation, the mandatory first stage, tends to take around one to two weeks. If the case is referred on, a first-instance judgment commonly follows within about a month in a straightforward matter. Many cases resolve within one to four months end to end. Add an appeal (a 15-day window, where the value allows it) and execution at the end, and a contested matter runs longer. These are typical patterns, not guarantees.

Often, in whole or in part. The judgment decides who bears the fees and expenses, and a court will generally charge them to the losing party, so the successful side can be reimbursed for what it advanced. It is not automatic and the amount recovered can differ from what you paid, but you should not assume the filing fee is a sunk cost — how costs are allocated is part of what the judgment settles.

No. They are fixed at AED 10 each regardless of the rent or the amount claimed. A common misconception is that they are a percentage — 10% of the filing fee — but on the RDC schedule they are flat AED 10 charges. On any case of real size they are negligible; the number that matters for your budget is the 3.5% basic fee within its floor and ceiling.

No. As a rule, where the dispute is below AED 100,000 and does not involve eviction, the first-instance judgment is final and the appeal department will not accept it. Above that value, or in eviction matters, a party may appeal within 15 days of the judgment (or of its notification if issued in absence). Knowing which side of that line your case sits on tells you whether to plan for one round or potentially two.