[Dubai - United Arab Emirate, 20 February 2018] – The Dubai Land Department (DLD) has announced a new milestone in its success. Having been able to reach settlements for all land disputes, the Department has not received any disputes relating to title deeds in the Emirate for the last seven years from 2010 to 2017.
DLD has reached this important milestone due to its reliance on Article no. 12 of the Land Registry Law No.7 of 2006.
This article gives full authority to DLD to consider applications for registration submitted by the plots owners that are not registered under their names in order to settle their issues. Following the issuance of the law, DLD received a number of requests up until the year 2010, and for the past seven years, the Department hasn't registered any case related to title deed disputes.
Sultan Al Akraf, Director of Real Estate Registration Services at DLD said: "We are delighted to announce this great achievement and the resolution of this previously widespread problem is an extremely positive manner. Our achievement stems from the successful progression of a number of cases, combined with the absence of any further requests to settle disputes over land holdings in Dubai for an extended period since the year 2010 till 2017 ".
Al Akraf added: "We believe that our effective and fair application of Article no. 12 of the Land Registry Law No. 7 of 2006 has successfully increased customer confidence in Dubai's real estate market. This is a direct result of the prerequisite official registration of all land in the Emirate in the names of the respective owners, which has culminated in the current position of complete absence of legal disputes with regards to this issue. "
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, issued Law No. 7 of 2006 regarding real estate registration in the Emirate. The law included 11 chapters with 29 articles relating to the definitions and general provisions of the law along with the system of application and the right to own property, providing DLD with authority to execute changes to land registry data and to allocate title deeds where appropriate.
Chapter 5 of article number 7 of the Land Registry Law set out terms for the creation of a property register to be maintained by DLD, in order to record all property rights and amend them as necessary. This property register carries absolute evidentiary value against all parties, with the validity of its data only disputable in the case of fraud or forgery.
| Year | Number of disputes |
| 2001 | 3 |
| 2002 | 6 |
| 2003 | 7 |
| 2004 | 5 |
| 2005 | 2 |
| 2006 | 10 |
| 2007 | 8 |
| 2008 | 5 |
| 2009 | 0 |
| 2010 | 2 |
| 2011 | 0 |
| 2012 | 0 |
| 2013 | 0 |
| 2014 | 0 |
| 2015 | 0 |
| 2016 | 0 |
| 2017 | 0 |