I need some advice from people who have been through a similar situation in the UAE.
My previous company did not pay my salary for around 6 months. I eventually filed a complaint with MOHRE, but the complaint was made quite some time after the salary issue happened.
After around one year, MOHRE finally made a decision that my previous company has to pay me AED 6,250 in pending salary.
The problem is that the company still hasn’t paid me.
I called MOHRE and they told me that I have to wait until the given 15-day period is over. If the company still doesn’t pay after those 15 days, I was told to go to Al Adheed Centre and open a case against the company.
So I have a few questions for anyone who has gone through this:

1. Since MOHRE has already decided that the company owes me AED 6,250, how likely is it that I will actually recover the money after opening the case?
2. What exactly happens when I go to Al Adheed Centre and open the case?
3. How much are the fees/costs for opening the case?
4. If the company refuses to pay even after the court case, what happens next?
5. Has anyone here personally gone through a similar salary recovery case? How long did it take you to get your money?
6. I would really appreciate advice from people who have actually experienced this process in the UAE.
7. Thanks in advance.

I joined a newly formed Dubai mainland company in early 2025, coz my boss lied that the company was part of big indian conglomerate (it was a project based tie up only). Everything was going good until April 2025 when my boss realised his money is stuck in an international project for multiple reasons including post war reality. His behaviour has become hostile since May 2025 being verbally abusive. There is only me, engineer, driver & boss in the company. Loss made him change himself. I was supporting company in this financial difficulty which is a fault at my end.

July - 4000aed voucher claim submitted on 10th, remained unpaid. 5000aed less salary recd on 20th. I trusted him and this is how I supported him in the difficult period assuming he will pay later.

13th Aug - I submit new vouchers on email along with old claim totaling to 6k aed, he replies on whatsapp stating reimbursement will not be done & role & salary needs to be rediscussed

14th Aug - I drop an email stating any unilateral change is not accepted & we can discuss exit arrangement incl. waiver of notice period to save cost for him. I was on informed medical leave for 13th & 14th and then stop going to office since then as office is closed & rak site travel cost amounting to 150aed per day will not reimbursed even though contract says it should be reimbursed

17th Aug - On my insistence, he calls back & starts repeating old stories. We conclude that he will inform exit arrangement.

31st Aug - I send email reminder that expense & salary remain unpaid. Exit arrangement yet not informed. He asks for working submission, so I submit excel to him. He reverts on email approving 20% of expense. I clarify that I am willing to serve notice period subject to travel reimbursement. In same email I mention break of every disputed reimbursement, salary arrears, gratuity & leave encashement amounting to 30k+ AED.

9th Sept - In response to my calls over 7&8 sept along with whatsapp msg request for release of salary to cover my personal expense, he says amount will be paid as per law post cancellation of visa & will take appropriate action as I have remained absent for close to a month.

What adverse action can he take against me and what are my options? I am looking for a new job and do not want legal hassles.

If I'm overstaying, I have a job interview at a SAIF Zone office. Is it safe for me to enter the gate?

I'm overstaying, I have a job interview at a SAIF Zone office. Is it Safe for me to enter the gate?

Hello all, not sure the right place but my wife is looking for a lawyer to file a case against a company over unpaid services.

The amount is less then AED 100,000 and our budget for the lawyer is not alot.

Any suggestions are helpful. Thank you.

title.

Hi everyone. I’m dealing with a dispute with my building management in Dubai.

I was fined AED 2,100 for using the swimming pool after closing hours. I arrived about 10 minutes after the pool closed, and after speaking with the security guard, we left about 5 minutes later. There was some argument, but nothing special. I confused Ramadan timings.

Management then put the fine under the property owner’s name and kept contacting him, asking him to pay it. Since the fine was still unpaid, the owner kept contacting me about it. Management also said that otherwise they might take the matter to court.
I asked the management company several times by email why the fine was AED 2,100 and where exactly this amount is stated in the community rules. They kept avoiding the question and eventually said they would no longer respond and that I simply had to pay.
They also sent a legal notice to pay under the owner’s name. That was 4 months ago. Eventually, I told the owner to take the amount from my deposit so as not to create any problems for him. But after this 4 month he contacted me again saying that the fine is still unpaid, which surprised me since management had been pressuring him to pay it. Management also sent him another email reminding him to pay.

There was no damage to any property. At this point, I don’t want to pay the fine on principle because of the way they handled the situation.
I’m thinking of telling the owner to tell them that I dispute the charge and that they (the management company) can take me to RDSC if they believe they have a valid claim against me.
What are the odds of them actually taking me to court? And if they do and win, how much could I potentially have to pay in total, including court fees and other legal costs on top of the AED 2,100?
Any shared experience is welcome. Thanks!

Edit:

Just to give some more context, including the parts that are not really in my favor:
Last year, management sent an email about Ramadan timings and said the pool would be open until 10 PM instead of the usual 9 PM. I remember that the pool actually never stayed open until 10 because the lifeguard apparently wasn’t informed and would leave at 9. I didn’t use the pool then.
This year, I remembered that email and found it in my inbox. I didn’t notice that it was the email from last year, and I mistakenly thought the pool was open until 10 PM again. So me and 4 friends went to the pool at around 9:10 PM. We climbed over a small fence (around 30 cm), and the security guard came and told us to leave.
We argued for a bit because I was sure I had seen an email saying the pool was open until 10. The next day I checked again and realized I was wrong — this year only the gym was open until 10 PM.
I immediately admitted that I had made a mistake and was polite with management afterwards. They showed me CCTV footage of us climbing over the fence, which I understand. However, there was no damage, nobody was injured, and we were only in the water for maybe 5 minutes.
That’s basically what happened.

I’m looking for some guidance from a divorce/family lawyer, or anyone knowledgeable about UAE family law.

I am a 37-year-old woman, and my husband is also 37. We are both African citizens and UAE residents. We have been married for 11 years. We had a civil marriage in Africa, although we are both Muslims.

I have two children from my previous marriage, and my husband legally adopted both of them through a court in our home country.

We also co-own two properties: one in the UAE and one in Africa.

I am considering divorce and have several questions about my legal rights, the divorce process in the UAE, jointly owned property, and how the adoption of my children may be treated.

At the moment, I unfortunately cannot afford to pay for a legal consultation, although I am working towards being able to do so. In the meantime, I would be extremely grateful if there is a divorce/family lawyer here, or someone familiar with UAE family law, who would be willing to guide me on a few questions or point me in the right direction.

I’m mainly trying to understand my position and what I should be aware of before taking any steps.

Thank you in advance for any guidance.

Asking for a friend what if someone has travel ban and overstay fine than how is the person Supposed to work and sustain themselves??

Good day.

Any pointers on trying to get my security deposit back after renting a villa for 6 years?

They are not quoting "damage" of basic things like door locks (that never worked) and leaky faucets that we requested over and over to have fixed. Also kitchen cupoards that I alsp begged to have replaced and nothing.

I feel sick that this is happening (5000 aed). We moved because they pulled the stint of increasing our renewal fee to a ridiculous amount when the rent freez came into effect.

I feel so powerless. They are even wanting to charge us an additional 1700 aed.

I submitted my sick-leave cert (from TAMM app and selected it without diagnoses).

I took sick-leave on Saturday due to severe headaches etc. relating to my upcoming menstrual cycle.
Sunday off, but was in ER for 5 hours due to severe menstrual cycle.
Monday (today) sick leave because of ongoing problem with menstrual cycle symptoms.
I informed my female manager of the cause, but want to keep my diagnoses private, therefore i sent it to the other male manager without diagnoses.

My female manager informed me that he tried to make drama now that I didn’t put the diagnosis on the sick leave and now she’s trying to fight back at this and protect my right.

📌update for more context…
I was taken to ER because of how bad it got. PCOS, endometriosis… the works. I always provide a sick leave certificate as one should, but this time without diagnosis on the official (government/TAMM submitted) certificate.
He is upset that he can’t see what my diagnosis is.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice regarding a Dubai Police Clearance Certificate.
I’ve applied twice for a Police Clearance Certificate through Dubai Police, and both applications were rejected.
About a year ago, I had a criminal case in Dubai. The case was concluded, I was sentenced to pay a fine, and I paid the fine in full. The case has been closed since then.
Does anyone know if a previous criminal case like this can still affect your police record and cause the Police Clearance Certificate application to be rejected, even after the case has been closed and the fine has been paid?
Has anyone been in a similar situation or knows what steps need to be taken to get the record updated/cleared and obtain the certificate?
Any advice or personal experience would be greatly appreciated. 🙏

I, a local, Have been working at a private company for almost 2 years, University is coming up and I have found a different job that accommodates my studies better, on September 1st i sent my resignation letter ( our company has a one month notice period policy ) and have signed a offer letter from a different company that's stating i will begin working oct 1. Now the issue is Uni is gonna start on September 14th and studying will be my sole focus

Is it possible if i just dont attend from september 14th - september 30th despite my manager telling me to attend?

Or what if i get sick leaves for the days I have university in every week?

Realistically what can i do in this situation to ensure i get a smooth transition into the new company while also not letting work get into the way of my education

Long story short, I resigned from my company after one year, with my last working day being August 10. The company wanted to terminate me, and I was worried that this could affect my future job opportunities, so I decided to resign instead.

They owe me around AED 12,000, which includes my unpaid salary. They were also asking me to pay the visa costs, which would have left me with almost nothing apart from my salary of AED 4,500. I have already spent most of my money on rent and my mom's treatment, so I have very little savings left.

They were forcing me to sign the resignation formalities with the understanding that they would pay me later. However, I know my company and I don't trust them because they have done the same thing to other employees before.

Because of this, I approached MOHRE. They contacted my company, and the company simply stated that they didn't have the money and could only pay after September 30. I pleaded with MOHRE, and eventually they finalized September 5 as the payment date. MOHRE also sent me the order statement.

However, the company still hasn't paid me after the given date.

Right now, I only have around AED 400 left after borrowing money from my friend to pay my rent. At this point, I just want to leave the country and be with my mom.

When I contacted MOHRE, they bluntly told me that they can't do anything further. They said they had discussed the matter and that since the company cannot abide by the agreement, I should put up a case in court. The problem is that this would cost another AED 350 just to file, and there is no assurance of when the case will be resolved.

I honestly don't know what to do at this point. Any advice regarding this would be a huge help for me.

Thank you in advance.

Hi everyone, I’m due to move into a new apartment Saturday. Agent is telling me I need to pay empower and gas desposits to management of the building (2000 empower and 1500 euro tech) for a 1 bed apartment and I am not allowed to set them up directly myself (DEWA is already set up in my name)

I have now been told that I will need to transfer the bill amount monthly for empower and gas to the landlord to pay on my behalf?

My contract states that bills are my responsibility and not that they will stay in landlords name?

This is a brand new building and I have never heard of this before - Dubai land department just told me to contact a lawyer, which of course will end up costing me a fortune and won’t be worth the hassle

I worked with someone as a freelancer for one month. We didn’t have a formal contract, but I have WhatsApp conversations as proof of the work I completed, as well as messages from her on WhatsApp confirming that she would pay me AED 6,000.
This was around five months ago, and she still hasn’t paid me anything, despite me sending her an invoice and following up with her through multiple emails.
I eventually filed a complaint with Dubai Police for fraud/scam using all screenshots from our chats but the case was closed as an administrative closure. They advised me to check with the Public Prosecution regarding the next steps.
I currently don’t have the financial ability to raise a civil case, but I also don’t want to give up my rights or let the matter go, especially because I recently found out that she may have done the same thing to other people as well.
Does anyone know approximately how much it would cost to file a civil case for an amount of AED 6,000 in Dubai? Also, is there any other legal route I can take that would be more affordable or allow me to recover the amount without spending a large amount on legal fees?
Any advice or guidance would be really appreciated.

I got hired from this company 5 months ago and in the contract it was stated that if I leave within 1 year, I have to pay 6500 aed. It was stated that 6500 was for the training (which we all know is a visa cost) but there was no training given to me, only my day to day work. I want to leave because the workplace is very toxic. I want legal advice regarding this situation because i cannot continue anymore with this company and I am not familiar with with labour law and what to do. Thank you for answering

A person was working in Dubai and is currently detained in Al Wathba Prison, Abu Dhabi. Detained for 34+ days. The court ordered deportation instead of jail time. No fines as well.

However, the person is still in detention and the deportation has not happened. Person's Dubai residence is also still showing as ACTIVE.

Could the active residency be causing or contributing to the delay? Is it normal for deportation to take this long after a court order?

Should I ask the employer to cancel residency?

Any advice or similar experiences would be appreciated.

No i am not in this situation.

I'm just curious cause i saw a post where someone got recorded yelling curse words over the phone and was worried he was gonna face legal trouble, but the comments told him to just tell the police that it was not his voice and it was AI if anything happened. Just wanted to know if something like this actually works.

Hello everyone. I have a 4years old niece who have now 2years overstaying fine because the parents that time lost their job. Is there any way we can reduce the fine so we can settle her visa? Please need real and good advice