What to Do When the Defects Liability Period Is About to Close

You checked your handover certificate and did the math. Six weeks left, give or take. Nothing has gone wrong. There has been no argument with the developer, no dispute, no drama. You simply moved in a year ago, got on with life, and now a window you were told would protect you is quietly closing, and you have never actually used it.

That is by far the most common way people lose their defects liability period in Dubai. Not through a fight. Through a year of nothing happening.

The good news is that six weeks, or even three, is usually enough time to do something about it, provided you act on a plan rather than a feeling. Here is that plan.

How Long Is the Defects Liability Period in Dubai, and When Does It Actually End?

In Dubai, the defects liability period is commonly twelve months from handover. Under Article 40(b) of Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019, the developer is liable for one year from handover for defects in installations. The exact length and the exact start date, though, come from your own sale and purchase agreement, so the clause in your contract is what actually governs your case. Read it, then put the expiry date somewhere you will actually see it.

Where to find your real expiry date

• Your handover certificate, which usually states the date you took possession
• Your SPA, in the defects liability clause, which sets out the exact duration
• One important exception: under Article 40, if you never actually took possession of the unit, the clock runs from the completion certificate date instead, not from a handover that never happened

That last point catches out investors who leave a unit vacant or rent it out through an agent without personally taking handover. The clock does not wait for you.

The Six Week Countdown

This is the part of the article that actually matters, so we will be direct about it. Booking your inspection has to happen with enough time left for something to be done with the results, not just enough time to produce a report.

When	What to do	Why it matters
Week 6, or earlier	Book the inspection now	Rectification takes weeks, not days. An inspection with two weeks left produces a report nobody has time to act on
Week 5	Full inspection carried out, including thermal imaging, moisture checks, sounding tests, level checks, and MEP performance	The defects that cost you the most are the ones you cannot see on a walkthrough, and this is your last funded chance to find them
Week 5	Submit the report to the developer in writing, referencing your DLP clause and its expiry date	A defect notified in writing inside the period is a defect raised inside the period. This single step matters more than anything else on this list
Week 4	Get a written rectification schedule with named dates	A schedule is a commitment. “It has been passed to the contractor” is not
Weeks 3 to 1	Rectification takes place	Cosmetic fixes typically take one to two weeks, functional issues two to four weeks, and major or structural items longer
Final week	Re-inspection, verifying every item individually	A status update that says closed is not the same as a repair that has actually been checked
After expiry	Your DLP has ended, but your structural cover has not	The ten year decennial liability window keeps running independently

Why booking in the last two weeks rarely achieves much

We would honestly rather turn away a booking than take one that cannot achieve anything. If you have ten days left before your DLP closes, we will still take the appointment, but the purpose changes. At that point, the goal is not to get every item repaired before the deadline. It is to get your notification in writing, inside the window, so the clock is legally stopped even if the physical repair happens afterward.

What a pre-expiry inspection finds that a handover inspection never could

A handover snag list is checking a building that has never actually been lived in. A pre-expiry inspection is checking a building that has been through a full year of real use, and that difference matters more than most owners expect.

A full Dubai summer will reveal things a March handover walkthrough simply cannot. Settlement cracking that only shows up after the structure has had time to move. Waterproofing that has been tested by actual rain rather than a spec sheet. Air conditioning that was fine in cooler months but cannot hold its design temperature once it is pushing 48 degrees outside. Sealants that have gone through a complete thermal expansion and contraction cycle. Drainage that behaves differently under everyday use than it did on a clean, empty unit.

This is genuinely a different inspection from the one you had at handover, and it tends to find genuinely different things.

What Happens If You Report a Defect on the Last Day?

This is the question almost every owner in this situation asks, and it rarely gets a straight answer anywhere.

Here is the position as it is generally understood. What has to happen inside the defects liability period is notification, not rectification. A defect properly raised in writing before the period closes is treated as a defect raised inside that period, even if the actual repair work is completed afterward. The obligation attaches at the point you notify the developer, not at the point the work gets finished.

That is exactly why the written, dated, evidenced submission is the single most important action on this whole list, more important than whether the repair itself happens before or after the deadline.

In practice, “in writing” should mean an email, with your inspection report attached, referencing specific item numbers, dated clearly, and ending with a request for written acknowledgement from the developer. Keep that acknowledgement. It is your proof that the clock was stopped in time, and it is worth more than any verbal assurance you will ever get from a site office.

We would still recommend speaking with a property lawyer if a real dispute develops from this, since the specifics of your SPA and how a developer responds can vary the picture.

What Actually Ends, and What Keeps Running

It is easy to read all of this and assume you are about to lose every protection you have. You are not, and it is worth being clear about exactly what survives.

Protection	Ends with the DLP?	Runs on
Developer liability for defective installations, mechanical, electrical, sanitary, sewerage	Yes, typically one year from handover	Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019, Article 40(b)
Your contractual defects liability period	Yes, whatever your SPA specifies	Your SPA
The 5 percent escrow retention	Effectively yes, released to the developer around one year after units are registered to purchasers	Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007, Article 14
Structural, decennial liability	No, ten years from the completion certificate	Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019 Article 40(a); UAE Civil Code
The three year claim window for a structural defect	No, it starts from the date of discovery, not from handover	UAE Civil Code
Latent defect claims generally	Runs on its own separate clock, often one year from delivery under the new Civil Code, unless your contract offers a longer guarantee	Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025

If your DLP has already closed and what you are looking at is a genuine structural concern, that is a different clock entirely, and a much longer one. We have covered that fully in our guide to what to do when a structural defect appears years after handover, including the ten year window and how it works under the current law.

Can the Defects Liability Period Be Extended?

Generally, no, not simply by asking. It is a contractual period tied to a fixed date, and developers are under no obligation to push that date back on request.

Two things are worth checking in your own SPA before you assume that is the end of it.

First, some contracts state that a replaced item carries its own fresh warranty period, separate from the original DLP. If the developer swaps out a faulty pump or unit, check whether that specific replacement resets a clock of its own.

Second, certain elements, such as MEP systems, waterproofing, or the façade, sometimes carry a longer contractual guarantee than the general clause. It is worth reading your SPA specifically for those carve-outs rather than assuming one single date governs everything.

One thing that will not help you: refusing to take possession in order to buy yourself more time. Under Article 40, where an owner does not take possession, the clock runs from the completion certificate date instead. Delaying handover does not delay your protection. It can shorten the time you actually have to use it.

What a Year of Living in a Dubai Apartment Actually Reveals

One unit we inspected had a genuinely clean handover. Snagged properly, everything closed off, no outstanding items on paper.

Eleven months later, we carried out the pre-expiry inspection on the same unit. The picture was different. The air conditioning, perfectly fine through the cooler months, could no longer hold its design temperature once the outdoor heat climbed past the high forties. A run of sealant along one balcony joint had visibly shifted after a full thermal cycle it had never experienced at handover. A drainage line that looked fine on paper backed up under real peak load in a way a dry, unused system never would have shown.

None of that was visible in March. All of it was visible in month eleven, because the building had finally been asked to do what buildings actually do over a year of real use.

That is really the whole argument for a pre-expiry inspection in one story. A handover inspection tests a building that has not been lived in yet. A pre-expiry inspection tests a building that has, and it is the developer, not you, who is meant to pay for whatever that second inspection finds while your DLP still allows it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is the defects liability period in Dubai? Commonly twelve months from handover, with the developer liable under Article 40(b) of Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019 for defective installations during that time. The exact duration and start date depend on your specific SPA clause.

When does the defects liability period start? Normally from your handover date. If you never took possession of the unit, it runs instead from the date of the completion certificate.

Can the defects liability period be extended? Not generally by simply asking. It is fixed to a contractual date. Check your SPA for whether replaced items carry their own fresh warranty, and whether specific elements like MEP or waterproofing carry a longer guarantee than the general clause.

What happens after the defects liability period ends? Your contractual DLP protection and the escrow retention release both wind down around the same time. Structural, decennial liability does not end with it and continues for ten years from the completion certificate.

Do I lose all my rights when the DLP expires? No. Structural defects remain covered under decennial liability for ten years, with a further three year window from the date any structural defect is discovered. What ends is the developer’s obligation for the broader, non-structural installation defects covered by your DLP.

What if I report a defect on the last day of the DLP? What has to happen inside the period is notification, not completed repair work. A defect raised in writing before the deadline is generally treated as raised inside the period, even if the fix happens afterward. Keep written proof of that submission and any acknowledgement.

How long before my DLP expires should I book an inspection? Around six to eight weeks is comfortable, allowing time to inspect, submit, get repairs scheduled, and re-inspect. Three weeks is tight but still worthwhile. Even inside the final week, it is still worth booking purely to get your notification submitted in writing before the deadline passes.

Is a pre-expiry inspection different from a handover snagging inspection? Yes. A handover inspection checks a building that has not been used yet. A pre-expiry inspection, carried out around a year later, checks how the property has actually performed through a full cycle of real use, including a Dubai summer, and tends to uncover different issues entirely.

There Is a Date on This. Book Before It Passes.

This is one of the few situations where urgency does not need any help from us. The date is already on your handover certificate or in your SPA. All we would ask is that you work it out today, count back six weeks, and treat that earlier date as your real deadline rather than the expiry date itself.

Our New Handover Snagging team also carries out pre-expiry inspections using the same engineer-led approach, InterNACHI-certified inspectors, thermal imaging, and moisture detection, with a full report delivered within 24 hours so there is still time left to act on it.

If water ingress or dampness is part of what is concerning you, our Water Leakage Inspection service specifically targets the kind of moisture issues that tend to surface only after a full year of use. And once rectification work is done, do not close the file on a developer’s word alone. Our earlier piece on re-inspecting after a developer says snags are fixed covers why that final verification step matters as much as the original report.