What should you insure as a landlord?

A landlord’s home policy pays for damage to the property and the rent lost while it is repaired. It is not a guarantee that rent gets paid.

What does a landlord need to insure?

Three things, unless someone else already covers them.

• The building. In a Dubai jointly owned building, the management entity insures it and you pay through service charges.¹ For a villa no one else insures, you buy buildings cover. See buildings insurance.
• Your liability as owner. Liva’s owner’s liability pays up to AED 2,000,000 for injury or damage to others “as owner (and not occupier) of the buildings”.² GIG Gulf’s goes up to AED 5,000,000 and Sukoon lists AED 3,000,000.³⁴
• Rent lost after damage. See below.

The tenant’s belongings are not yours to insure. In Dubai the landlord must repair defects and damage that are not the tenant’s fault, unless the lease says otherwise.⁵ Buildings cover is what pays for those repairs when an insured event caused them.

When does a landlord’s policy pay lost rent?

Only when an insured event makes the home unfit to live in. Liva pays “The rent you should have received but have lost whilst your home is unfit to live”, for up to 12 months, capped at 20% of the buildings sum insured and AED 500,000.² GIG Gulf pays “the rent you should have received for the uninhabitable property (for non-occupying landlord)” within 20% of the buildings sum insured, up to AED 500,000.³ Tokio Marine’s page describes the same cover.⁶

Liva, GIG Gulf and Tokio Marine describe loss of rent only as a result of damage by an insured cause.²³⁶ If you want cover for unpaid rent, ask an insurer or broker for the policy wording of any rent guarantee product, and check who the insurer is.

What does a home policy exclude when the property is let?

Several sections narrow once the home is let. In Liva’s 2026 wording:²

• Malicious damage by “any employee, guests, tenant or by you or your household” is excluded.
• Accidental damage to the building is excluded “whilst your home or any part of it is lent or let”.
• Theft of contents while the home “is lent or let” is excluded unless force was used to get in or out.

GIG Gulf excludes malicious damage and theft “caused by you, your paying guests, tenants or residents”.³

So damage a tenant causes on purpose is usually a claim against the tenant, not the policy. Take a security deposit, record the condition of the property at check-in and check-out, and tell your insurer the home is let.

What can a Dubai landlord do if rent is not paid?

Ask for eviction. Under Article 25 of the tenancy law, as amended in 2008, a landlord may request eviction before the lease ends where, unless otherwise agreed, the tenant fails to pay the rent “within thirty (30) days from the date of service of a Notice on the Tenant by the Landlord requesting the payment”.⁷ The notice goes through a notary public or by registered mail.⁷

Serve the notice in the form the law sets, and keep proof of service.