What should you insure when you rent your home?

The landlord answers for the building. You answer for your belongings and for damage you cause.

What is a tenant responsible for?

In Dubai, the tenancy law splits it. The landlord must carry out maintenance and repair “any defect or damage that may affect the Tenant’s intended use” unless the lease says otherwise, and is responsible for damage and wear “not attributable to the fault of the Tenant”.¹

The tenant must maintain the home “as an ordinary person would maintain his own property”, may not alter or repair it without the landlord’s permission, and must hand it back in the same condition, apart from ordinary wear and tear and damage beyond the tenant’s control.¹ The landlord may take a security deposit “to ensure maintenance of the Real Property” at the end of the lease.¹ Damaging the home wilfully or through gross negligence is a ground for eviction.²

Nothing in the Dubai tenancy law makes the landlord insure your belongings, or makes you buy insurance.¹ Read your lease: it can add duties the law does not.

Which parts of a home policy protect a tenant?

Three sections matter.

The limits above come from Union Insurance’s Home Shield table, Salama’s flyer, Liva’s 2026 wording, Sukoon’s page and GIG Gulf’s handbook.³⁴⁵⁶⁷

ADNIC says that if you rent, “you’ll be covered for accidental damage to the property to protect your deposit”.⁸ Tokio Marine offers an extension “to cover Tenants/Landlords liability as applicable”.⁹

What does tenant’s liability cover in a wording?

Liva’s wording is a useful example. If you are the tenant and not the owner, it pays what you are liable for under the tenancy agreement for damage to the buildings by the events in the contents section, to internal decorations and the landlord’s fixtures, to underground pipes and cables, and breakage of fixed glass and sanitary ware.⁵

GIG Gulf’s Tenants Legal Liability pays “All sums up to AED 1,000,000 (or as mentioned in your Policy Schedule) for which you are legally responsible as Tenant” for loss of or damage to “the Home and landlords fixtures and fittings”.⁷

Both tie the cover to your legal liability. If the damage is the landlord’s to repair under the tenancy law, the landlord deals with it, and your policy does not pay.

Does a tenant’s policy pay for a hotel if the flat is unfit to live in?

Usually, within a limit. Liva pays the rent you still owe on the uninhabitable home or the reasonable extra cost of similar accommodation, for up to 12 months, capped at 20% of the contents sum insured and AED 500,000.⁵ GIG Gulf’s Occupiers Loss of Rent or Alternative Accommodation has the same 20% and AED 500,000 limits.⁷ Union Insurance’s table gives AED 5,000 to AED 50,000 for alternative accommodation.³

The event that made the home unfit must be one the policy covers. Keep receipts for the hotel and for the rent you paid.

What should you check before you buy?

• The tenant’s liability limit, against your security deposit and the value of the landlord’s fittings.
• Whether accidental damage is included or optional. GIG Gulf includes it only “when shown in your Schedule”.⁷
• The number of days the home can be empty. It is 60 in the Liva and GIG Gulf wordings.⁵⁷
• Whether you share the flat. Liva excludes some losses “while your home is lent, let, sublet or shared with anyone other than your family”.⁵

Send your landlord a copy of your schedule if the lease asks for proof of insurance.