VERIFICATION OR DUE DILIGENCE OF REAL ESTATE IN THE UAE

Buyers carry out due diligence as in any other jurisdiction. However, this is limited by the lack of information available to the public. The register, which is maintained by the Dubai Land Department (DLD) and contains information about owners, is private. In order to prove title, the seller must issue a “no objection certificate”, which allows DLD to prove title to the relevant property to the prospective (and named) buyer. More often than not, the seller will simply provide the prospective buyer with a copy of their title deed to prove ownership, and possibly a copy of the ‘amenity plan’ issued for the property by Dubai Municipality to demonstrate the approved use of the property. ground section.

Increasingly, potential buyers are demanding more comprehensive due diligence and sellers are providing it, particularly for higher value transactions and more complex deals. It is quite common to make inquiries before concluding a contract, and even to receive copies of the results of any studies of the object (for example, environmental studies, etc. building), and even to conduct inspections of the object. In addition, buyers are now more likely to request a due diligence report from their lawyers and obtain professional property appraisals.

What you need to check before buying land, a house, an apartment or any other real estate object:

• Emergence of the object and the first right of ownership.

Most often, violations of the law are allowed precisely at the stage of construction and registration of property rights. That is why it is important to check how the right to build arose, the origin of the land, who built it and on what basis, whether there were any conflicts or disputes during construction.

• Analysis of previous owners.

It is very important to understand the order of change of owners and who they actually are, from the very first to the last. This can be done either by analyzing all agreements of purchase, sale, donation, etc., or through the relevant registers.

• What is the status of the real estate object?

It is necessary to examine the documents on the basis of which the last registration of ownership took place, whether such ownership is currently encumbered by arrests or bans on registration actions, the absence or presence of legal disputes and decisions regarding the real estate object.

• Physical inspection of the real estate object.

Verification of technical compliance characteristics of permit documentation. It often happens that the previous owners changed something and did not make appropriate corrections and changes to the technical documentation, which in the future can lead to at least additional costs for the legalization of such changes, or even to the unfitness of the object for use and significant investment losses.

Legal inspection of a real estate object in the UAE does not consist in gathering information from open sources from the Internet, but in particular in a thorough understanding of the legislation in the field of construction and experience in working with construction and judicial activities.

Based on the results of the inspection of the object of investment in the UAE, you will receive a conclusion of our campaign, which will reflect all the stages of the inspection with identified shortcomings and comments, as well as an investment conclusion regarding possible risks, if any are identified.