Overview
Long-let management for Ras Al Khaimah landlords. We find the tenant, register the tenancy, collect the rent, handle the maintenance calls and negotiate the renewal. Most of our managed stock is in Al Hamra Village, Mina Al Arab, Al Marjan Island and Al Nakheel, which is where we do our viewings anyway.
If you want the property let to holidaymakers by the night rather than to a tenant by the year, that is a different service on a different fee. See holiday home management.
Finding the tenant
We price the property against what has actually let nearby in the last three months, not against what is still sitting on the portals. Photography, floor plan and listing go up on the portals and on properties for rent in Ras Al Khaimah. We screen enquiries before they reach you: employer, visa status, family size and cheque preference. You approve the tenant before anything is signed.
Registering the tenancy
Ras Al Khaimah does not use Ejari, and it does not use Ajman’s Tasdeeq either. The service is called Tenancy Contract Registration and it is run by RAK Municipality’s Lands and Properties Sector through the RAK Digital portal. Both parties sign electronically with UAE Pass. No typing centre and no physical presence are needed, and a residential registration takes about two working days.
What it costs. AED 50 plus 5 per cent of the annual rent, with a minimum of AED 200, for a residential tenancy. For commercial and investment property it is AED 100 plus 5 per cent with a minimum of AED 500. The tenant pays.
How it is paid. This is the part that surprises people who have rented in Dubai. The 5 per cent is not paid as a lump sum at registration. It is split into twelve monthly instalments and added to the tenant’s Etihad Water and Electricity bill as municipal fees. On an AED 100,000 rent that is roughly AED 417 a month. It is pro-rated if the tenancy is cancelled early.
Why it matters. Etihad Water and Electricity will not activate a supply without a municipality-approved tenancy contract, and an unregistered contract cannot be used in a dispute or in a visa file. Registration and getting the power on are now effectively the same step. Note that FEWA no longer exists under that name; it became Etihad Water and Electricity in 2020.
What is needed. Emirates ID for both parties, a trade licence if either side is a company, a power of attorney where one is used, and the property’s Etihad Water and Electricity premise number. The title deed is not required, because the Municipality already holds the ownership record.
We prepare the contract, complete the registration, take the security deposit and run a written inventory and condition report with dated photographs at move-in. The inventory is the document that decides who pays for what at the end, so it is worth doing properly. Our guide to tenancy registration in Ras Al Khaimah covers the process in full.
If you might want to let the property short-term later, the tenancy has to carry a sublet clause and you will need to give a separate written no objection certificate. Ask us before signing rather than after.
Rent and cheques
Rent in Ras Al Khaimah is quoted annually and paid by post-dated cheque, in one, two, four or twelve instalments. Monthly payment is more common here than in Dubai. Fewer cheques means a lower headline rent. We hold the cheques, bank them on the due date, chase anything that bounces and send you a statement each time money lands.
A bounced cheque is a payment default and a ground for termination under the Ras Al Khaimah standard lease terms, which is a useful position to be in and a reason to keep the paperwork tidy from the start.
The security deposit is customarily one month’s rent. It is not fixed by law, and it is not the same thing as the 5 per cent municipality fee, which is a confusion we see regularly.
Maintenance
You set a spending limit. Anything under it we fix and bill; anything over it comes to you with a quote first. We hold keys, meet contractors and check the work before it is paid for. Air conditioning, water heaters and pool pumps are the three things that fail in this climate, so we service them on a schedule rather than waiting for the call.
Be aware that most Ras Al Khaimah communities require the landlord’s written consent and a community permit before a contractor can start work, even for painting. Al Hamra runs a modification permit with a refundable deposit, and RAK Properties requires work permit requests to come from the owner’s registered email address. We handle that. Larger works are quoted separately, with your approval before anything starts. A property that needs furnishing before it goes on the market is priced from our furniture packages.
Inspections and renewal
We inspect at three months, then every six months, with a short written report and photographs.
Renewal has a fixed shape in Ras Al Khaimah. If either party does not want the tenancy to continue, they give two months’ written notice before expiry. Silence means it renews automatically on the same terms for a like period, so the notice date matters. A tenant leaving early gives three months’ notice and pays the rent for that period.
Rent cannot be increased until at least a year has passed from the expiry of the first lease term. After that, Ras Al Khaimah has no published rent index and no rent calculator, so an increase is a negotiation against comparable evidence rather than a formula. Ninety days before the tenancy ends we tell you what the property would let for now and recommend whether to hold or raise. A renewal at a slightly lower rent usually beats a void month plus a new letting fee, and we will say so when it is true.
Disputes
Rental disputes in Ras Al Khaimah go to the Committee for the Resolution of Real Estate and Rental Disputes, a special judicial committee established in 2012 with its procedure updated in 2019. It is not part of RAK Courts and it is not Dubai’s Rental Disputes Settlement Centre. It has sole jurisdiction over real estate and rental disputes, including cheque complaints arising from a lease. The filing fee is 10 per cent of the claim value, capped at AED 30,000.
We handle the filing and the evidence pack. Most cases never get that far if the inventory, the registration and the notices were done properly at the start.
Fees
We do not publish a management rate. Fees are quoted per owner, because the size of the property and the number of properties we manage for you both change what the work costs us and what we charge for it. An owner with one two-bedroom apartment and an owner with six villas are not quoted the same way.
Ask us for a quotation. You get it in writing, with VAT shown separately, before you sign anything. There are no charges for statements, inspections or renewal negotiation.
Get a rental valuation
Send the community, the building, the bedroom count and the size in sqft, and we will tell you what it should let for and how long it should take.
Call or WhatsApp +971 58 569 4663, or email [email protected].