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Glossary

Mollak

Mollak is the Dubai Land Department system that approves and monitors service charges in jointly owned buildings. Under Law No. 6 of 2019 a management company cannot bill an owner for anything RERA hasn't approved, and the money has to sit in a bank account it cannot raid.

What Mollak is

DLD's own description: "The Dubai Land Department, through its regulatory arm Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), has launched a first-of-its-kind e-system called Mollak (the Arabic word for Owners), which regulate jointly owned properties, service charge and monitor the payment of service charges in jointly-owned properties in Dubai." The system "reflects the provisions of Law No. (6) of 2019 concerning Jointly Owned Property".

That law is the thing to read. It was issued on 4 September 2019, came into force sixty days after publication in the Official Gazette, and repealed the 2007 law it replaced. Everything a buyer needs to know about service charges in Dubai is in five of its articles, quoted below. Mollak is the software that enforces them.

We could not find an official launch date for Mollak itself. DLD's Mollak site carries a "last updated" stamp of February 2020 and its circular list stops in 2019, so we treat it as a description of what the system is, not as a source for anything current.

How a service charge gets approved

Your share is a matter of area, not negotiation. Article 25(a): an owner pays "his share of the annual Service Charges to cover the Common Parts management, operation, maintenance, and repair expenses. This share will be calculated ... based on ratio of the area of the Owner's Unit to the total area of the Jointly Owned Real Property."

The management company cannot set the number itself. Article 27(a): a Management Entity "must not charge Owners, or collect from them, any amounts whatsoever in return for the management, operation, maintenance, or repair of Common Parts or Common Facilities; or for any other reason, without first obtaining the relevant approval of RERA." And RERA can't wave it through. Article 27(b): "RERA may not approve or ratify the Service Charges or Usage Charges budget unless it is approved by a certified audit firm recognised by RERA for this purpose." Where a budget is late, Article 27(c) lets RERA approve a temporary one.

The flip side binds the owner. Article 28: "An Owner or Sub-developer may not refrain from paying the Service Charges or Usage Charges approved by RERA. An Owner may not waive his interest in Common Parts to avoid paying the charges due from him." So the test of any bill is one question: is this the RERA-approved figure for my building and year? Mollak is where that answer lives.

Budgets were annual by default. In December 2025 DLD approved "the first-ever three-year fixed service fees" for the Palm Jumeirah master community and said the mechanism "enables the management companies of jointly owned properties (JOPs) to submit and secure approval for a three-year service fees budget via the 'Mollak' system, while also maintaining the option for entities that wish to continue adopting a one-year budgeting model." RERA's chief executive said any community management company in Dubai can use it. Expect more three-year budgets from 2026.

Where the money sits

Article 30 is the escrow rule. The management entity "must open a Service Charges account for each Jointly Owned Real Property with a bank licensed to operate in the Emirate and recognised by RERA", must deposit collected charges "within seven (7) working days from the date of collection", and the balance "may not, for any reason whatsoever, be subject to attachment in favour of the Management Entity creditors." The same article lists the only ten things the money can be spent on: cleaning, security, maintenance, insurance, audit fees, the management company's fee, developer administration costs on major projects, an emergency reserve, RERA inspection fees, and other costs RERA approves.

Mollak's own strap line puts it plainly: a system "to monitor accounts related to service charges by relying on the financial accounts operating according to the mechanism of the escrow account." If a management company goes under, the service-charge account isn't part of the wreckage.

How to check what your building is approved to charge

DLD publishes the approved figure per project per year through a free service it calls the Service Charge Index. Its description: "This service allows the customer to inquire about the approved service fees for Joint ownership properties from the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) in Dubai Emirate." Anyone can use it, resident or not, and the result is immediate.

1. Open the Dubai REST app (or the DLD website) and go to Services.
2. Select Service Charge Index.
3. Enter the details manually or pick the building on the map.
4. Select the project, its usage (residential, commercial), and the year, and search.
5. Read the result: project name, usage, budget period, management company, and a per-square-foot rate broken into services, maintenance, utilities, management, insurance, master community, general fund and reserve fund, with a total.

Note what the tool is not. It is a lookup, one building and one year at a time. RERA publishes no comparative table of community-level rates, so every "AED per square foot in Downtown versus JLT" figure you'll read on a brokerage site is that brokerage's own compilation, not a DLD number. We don't repeat them. Look up the building you're actually buying in, for the current year, and put that figure in your yield calculation. The DLD also carries the index through the Mollak portal.

If an owner doesn't pay

Article 32 gives the management entity "a lien on every Unit for unpaid Service Charges", and "a Unit may not be disposed of unless these charges are paid." The process is written out: a written notice in the RERA-approved form; thirty days to pay; then the claim "will be enforceable by the execution judge at the RDSC", the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre, and "where necessary, the competent execution judge may order that a Unit ... is sold by public auction to collect these charges." The defaulting owner also pays the court fees and advocates' fees the judge awards.

No interest rate is written into the law. The pressure is the lien and the auction, not a penalty percentage. For a buyer the practical rule is the first line of Article 32: arrears travel with the unit, so a seller's unpaid service charges are your problem the moment you'd like to sell. Ask for the Mollak statement before you sign.

Who oversees the manager

Owners' committees. In January 2025 RERA invited owners to register for them, "in lines with the Jointly Owned Property Law in Dubai", with registration open to the end of that month, priority to the first nine registrants, and conditions of residency, a valid Emirates ID, a Dubai Police good-conduct certificate and settled service fees. Owning a unit with clean Mollak arrears is the price of a seat.

Two RERA circulars from 2025 and 2026 are described on law-firm and consultant sites as reframing committees toward "strategic oversight" and introducing large fines for reporting failures. We could not find either circular on DLD's own circulars page or on the Dubai legislation portal, so we don't repeat their numbers or the fine.

Where this comes up

RERA · Escrow account · Dubai communities

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This entry is part of the Home Guide Dubai glossary - the vocabulary a Dubai buyer or Golden Visa applicant actually meets, defined in plain English and kept consistent with our verified guides.