Family and divorce
Alimony and Maintenance
The transfers have stopped, the school has asked about next term’s fees, and you need to know whether anything can be done about it. Maintenance is the part of a family case that hits daily life first, and it is what most people who contact alimony lawyers in Dubai want dealt with before anything else.
Licensed advocate practice, licence 593372.
First ten minutes free, with the advocate.
Dubai courts, and coordination for Abu Dhabi.
Proceedings in Arabic, explained to you in plain terms.
The short answer
Maintenance here is not a single payment with a single formula. It covers several distinct things, it is assessed by weighing what one party can afford against what the other party and the children genuinely need, and it can be claimed while a case is running as well as at the end of one. It can also be changed later, and enforced when ignored.
This page covers the kinds of maintenance available, what the court takes into account, how a claim is made, the evidence that decides it, varying and enforcing an order, and what happens when the paying party is abroad. We are a licensed advocate practice in Dubai. Call +971 50 747 9570 or email help@lawyerindubai.ae.
The different kinds of maintenance
Asking only for a monthly figure is the most common mistake in a maintenance claim, because maintenance is made up of several separate heads and each one has to be claimed and evidenced on its own.
Maintenance for a spouse
Spousal support in UAE practice is not the same concept as long term alimony in some other systems. When it is payable, and the basis on which it is worked out, depend on which personal status framework applies to your family and on the stage the marriage or the case has reached.
Maintenance for a child
A parent’s obligation to support a child is dealt with separately from anything owed to the other parent, and it does not depend on the relationship between the parents. It covers the ordinary cost of raising the child: food, clothing, everyday needs and the cost of being cared for.
Housing
Accommodation is treated as its own head rather than absorbed into a monthly figure. That can mean a contribution towards rent, or an arrangement about the family home itself. Where the tenancy is in one party’s name, deal with it explicitly, because a renewal date has a way of arriving in the middle of a case.
Schooling, medical costs and the rest
School fees are one of the largest items in an expatriate family’s budget and one of the most frequent flashpoints. Fees, transport, uniforms and enrolment deposits can be addressed, but only if they are claimed and supported by invoices; an order that does not mention school fees will not produce them. Medical costs and insurance, transport and domestic help can also form part of a claim, depending on how the family actually lived.
What the court takes into account
Maintenance is decided under the personal status framework that governs your family, and the two frameworks are not identical in what they provide for. Which one applies is settled at the start of a case, and our page on divorce lawyers in Dubai explains how that is determined.
What the paying party can afford
The starting point is that party’s real financial position: income, existing obligations, and what is genuinely available. Understating income is common, and the answer to it is documents rather than argument.
What the household actually needs
Against that sits what the receiving party and the children need, measured against how this family lived rather than an abstract standard. A claim built out of tenancy contracts, school invoices and bank statements does better than one built out of assertions about lifestyle.
Why nobody can give you a figure on the phone
People arrive wanting a number, and often somebody has already given them one. A figure produced before anyone has seen both parties’ documents is not an assessment. What a lawyer can usefully tell you at a first meeting is what the court will weigh and what your existing evidence supports.
How a maintenance claim is made in Dubai
Where the claim belongs
Maintenance is a personal status matter, filed on the personal status side of the court in the emirate the case belongs to. A claim can be brought alongside a divorce or on its own, including where neither party is seeking a divorce.
The conciliation stage
Most personal status matters in Dubai go through family guidance and conciliation before a judge hears them. Maintenance is often the item most capable of being agreed there, and an arrangement recorded at that stage saves a long argument later.
Filing, the written case and translation
UAE proceedings are document driven. The claim is set out in writing with its evidence attached, the other side answers in writing, and hearings are shorter than most people expect. Proceedings run in Arabic, so payslips, tenancy contracts, school invoices and bank statements in another language go before the court through a legal translator, and foreign certificates normally need legalisation first.
Maintenance while the case is running
Support is often needed before a case finishes, particularly where one party controlled the household money. Interim maintenance is a normal part of family practice and should be raised at the start rather than saved for the end.
Evidence of income and expenses
A maintenance claim in Dubai is decided on evidence far more than on argument, and the party with the better organised file usually does better.
What to produce on income
Salary certificate, payslips covering a meaningful period, employment contract, bank statements, and evidence of anything the employer provides on top of salary, such as housing or schooling allowances. Company ownership, rental income and commission all count, and all of them get left out of the first draft.
What to produce on expenses
Tenancy contract and rent receipts, school fee invoices and payment records, medical and insurance costs, utilities, transport, and statements showing what the household actually spends. A one page schedule of monthly expenditure with a document behind each line is worth more than a long account of how things used to be.
When income is not on a payslip
Self employment, a shareholding, cash income, property held elsewhere and allowances paid outside salary are where a paying party most often understates the position. There are ways of getting at it, and they work better when the claim identifies what is suspected rather than complaining generally.
Changing an order when circumstances change
When a variation is worth asking for
An order reflects the position as it was when it was made. Job loss, a substantial pay rise, a new child, a move abroad, or a change in the children’s schooling or health can all make it wrong, and an existing order is not necessarily permanent. What you have to show is a change in circumstances, evidenced: a drop in income proved by documents rather than a letter, or an increase in cost proved by invoices covering a period rather than one month.
Do not simply stop paying
The worst response to a genuine change of circumstances is to cut payments unilaterally and wait to be challenged. Arrears accrue, the record works against you, and the application you should have made becomes harder to win. Apply, and keep paying while the application runs.
Enforcing an order that is not being paid
Obtaining an order and being paid under it are two different things, and a good part of what alimony lawyers in Dubai actually do is the second one.
The execution stage
An order is not self-executing. Where payments are not made, the matter goes to execution, which has its own procedure for compelling payment. Unpaid maintenance goes through the same stage as an ignored custody or contact order, which our page on child custody lawyers in Dubai covers.
Keep the payment record, and act early
Write down what was due and what arrived, month by month, at the time rather than afterwards. Partial payment is a common pattern and it is enforceable like anything else. Tell your lawyer as soon as payments stop rather than waiting to see whether they restart.
When the paying party is abroad or has left the UAE
Moving abroad does not end an obligation to support a spouse or a child. What it does is make the practical side harder, which is a different problem and a solvable one more often than people assume.
Service and proof of service
The main obstacle is serving the papers on someone outside the country and proving to the court that service was properly effected. This follows a set procedure and it adds time. It is the single most common reason a maintenance case stalls.
Assets still here, and enforcing abroad
Where the paying party has left but still holds something here, a salary from a UAE employer, an account, a property or a shareholding, that is usually the most productive line to take, so work out what remains before the case gets going. Enforcing a UAE order where they now live depends on the law of that country and on any arrangement between the two states.
What to bring to a first meeting
Marriage certificate, passports and Emirates ID for both parties and the children, birth certificates, tenancy contract, salary certificate and payslips, bank statements, school fee invoices, and any existing order or agreement about maintenance.
Add a one page schedule of what the household costs each month and a record of what has been paid and when. Say which documents were issued outside the UAE, because those need legalisation and legal translation before they can go before the court.
Common questions about alimony and maintenance in Dubai
How much maintenance will I get?
Nobody can answer that before seeing the documents on both sides. The assessment weighs what the paying party can afford against what you and the children need, measured against how the family actually lived. What we can do at a first meeting is tell you what your existing evidence supports and what is missing from it.
Can I claim maintenance without getting divorced?
A maintenance claim can be brought on its own and does not have to follow a divorce. That matters where one spouse has stopped supporting the household but neither party has started divorce proceedings.
How long does maintenance continue after a divorce?
That depends on which framework applies to your family and on which kind of maintenance is in question, and the answer is not the same for a spouse as for a child. It should be confirmed against the current legislation rather than taken from an article.
He has left the UAE. Is there any point in claiming?
Usually yes, although it will take longer. Service has to be effected abroad and proved, and enforcement depends on what he still holds here or on the law where he now lives. Establish what remains in the country before deciding the position is hopeless.
Do I need a family lawyer in Dubai for a maintenance claim?
Proceedings run in Arabic, the case is decided on documents, and the framework that applies to you is not obvious from the outside. Our family lawyers in Dubai page covers the wider family practice, and our legal fees page explains how our charges are structured.
Speak to an alimony lawyer in Dubai
If payments have stopped, if school fees are due and nobody is covering them, or if you have been served with a maintenance claim and need to answer it, the first step is a conversation about what your documents actually show.
Call +971 50 747 9570, email help@lawyerindubai.ae, or use our contact page. Bring whatever you have on income and expenses, and any existing order, and we will tell you what can be claimed and in what order.
What this costs
The first ten minutes are free. After that a standard fee applies and you are told what it is, in writing, before any work starts. Court and government fees are set by the court and are separate from ours.
Tell us what happened
Ten minutes, no charge, and a straight answer about whether you need a lawyer for this.