I Paid to Reserve a Dubai Off-Plan Unit, but the Developer Has Not Issued the SPA

Welcome back to the dispute.ae podcast. I'm Paul, and this is episode thirty-one. As always, this is general information, not legal advice — the aim is to make the record clearer before anyone changes position.

The first thirty episodes mapped developer and rental disputes. These next ten return to buyer–developer disputes: what to do when the project, paperwork or payment record no longer matches what the buyer expected. A buyer reserves a Dubai off-plan unit, pays an amount, receives a receipt — and then waits for the Sale and Purchase Agreement. A week becomes a month. Drafts arrive, or nothing arrives. The buyer asks a very reasonable question: "What exactly have I signed, and what does my payment now relate to?"

Don't treat every document as the SPA

The first mistake is to treat every document as the SPA. Nor does a missing title prove that nothing was agreed. Build the file in stages. Start with the advertisement, project presentation or broker message that led to the reservation. Then preserve the expression-of-interest form, the booking or reservation form, the payment request, the payment-link terms, the receipt, the email acceptance, the draft SPA, the signature request and every later version. Keep the complete documents, not only the page containing the amount.

The records answer different questions

A reservation form may identify the buyer, project, unit, price and reservation conditions. A receipt shows that a stated amount was received by a stated entity on a stated date. A draft SPA shows proposed terms, but not necessarily acceptance by both parties. An electronic-signature envelope can show who was invited, who signed, when they signed and whether the process was completed. A provisional registration e-certificate records a DLD registration event. None should be renamed to make the file look neater.

Create a transaction table

Record the project name and number, the developer's full legal name, the unit number, the proposed price, the reservation date, the amount paid, the recipient name, the recipient account, the payment reference, the receipt number, the documents signed, the people who signed them, and every promised date for the SPA.

If there are several developer or broker entities, do not group them under the brand name. Write down which entity advertised, which issued the reservation form, which requested payment, which received it, and which was supposed to issue the SPA. Similar trading names are not a substitute for the exact names from the documents.

Trace the money without jumping to a conclusion

Keep the original bank transfer, card receipt or cheque evidence. Save the payment instructions and the page or message through which they were sent. Match the amount to the reservation form and receipt. If the receipt describes the money as a booking fee, reservation amount, deposit, part-payment or administration charge, reproduce that wording exactly rather than choosing your own label.

Dubai Law Number 8 of 2007 establishes project escrow accounts for payments by off-plan purchasers. That does not mean a buyer can assume, from a receipt alone, that the payment reached the correct project account or can be withdrawn on demand. The useful administrative question is narrower: which entity and account received it, how was it described, and what official or developer record connects it to this project and unit?

Check the project, then the registration evidence

Check the project through Dubai Land Department's Project Status Enquiry. Save the result with the date, project number, developer details, status and any escrow information displayed. This confirms the official project record available that day; it does not decide what the reservation form means or whether the buyer has a refund claim.

Then check the registration evidence. DLD's current Request to Register the Initial Sale service is a developer service for registering an off-plan unit in the provisional register. Its published requirements include a copy of the sale and purchase contract, and its terms say the SPA is to be signed by developer and purchaser and registered in the provisional register within ninety days from signing; the issued document is a provisional registration e-certificate. That gives the buyer a factual sequence to verify: was an SPA completed by both sides; if so, on what date; was a registration application made; and was a provisional registration e-certificate issued? Not having the certificate in an inbox does not prove that no entry exists — and a developer saying "registration is in process" is not the same as providing the reference or official output.

DLD's published FAQs say that where a developer refuses or delays registering a sale contract, an application supported by the relevant documents can be submitted to its Real Estate Registration Assurance section. Whether that description fits a file in which the SPA itself is missing is not something to guess: preserve the evidence and ask DLD or a licensed adviser about the actual facts.

Send the developer a factual status request

Identify the buyer, project, unit, reservation reference, amount and payment date. Ask for: the current reservation status; the complete SPA version intended for signature; confirmation of whether both parties have signed; the registration application or e-certificate reference; confirmation of how the payment was allocated; and the next required step with its date. Do not turn that email into a legal demand copied from the internet — its immediate purpose is to obtain a clear written record.

A composite example

A buyer signs a two-page reservation form and pays fifty thousand dirhams to a payment link issued under a broker's name. The developer sends an unsigned SPA draft with a different unit suffix. Later, the buyer receives a message saying the unit is "registered", but no certificate or reference. That file does not support one quick conclusion. It contains four mismatches: recipient entity, unit identifier, signature status and registration evidence. Each needs a separate answer.

What the buyer should avoid

Do not sign a new or backdated document simply to complete the file. Do not pay a further instalment merely because someone says it will unlock the SPA. Do not publish allegations about missing or misused money from an unreconciled record. And do not submit a cancellation or refund demand assuming a generic DLD complaint form can decide it — DLD's RVS violation service excludes contractual disputes, cancellation, refunds and compensation.

The 2010 implementing bylaw also identifies refusal, without a reason acceptable to DLD, to deliver the final sale agreement as a circumstance in which a purchaser may seek a court remedy. That is precisely why the facts should be reviewed by a UAE-qualified lawyer or legal consultant rather than converted into an automatic online answer. This transcript does not decide whether that provision applies, whether a contract exists, or what relief is available.

The administrative task is to make the transaction visible from beginning to end: what was offered, what was signed, what was paid, who received it, what was promised next, what DLD records show and what remains unanswered. If you remember one thing, remember this: "I paid but I have no SPA" is the start of the chronology, not the legal conclusion.

Official sources referenced

In the next episode, we look at what a missing or incorrect Oqood record actually proves — and what it does not.

Thanks for listening. The full transcript is at transcript.ae. For pre-legal dispute support, dispute.ae is where that work is done.