Construction
Construction Lawyers in Dubai
A certificate has not been paid. The programme has slipped and nobody agrees whose fault that is. Or a letter has arrived threatening termination. Construction disputes rarely begin as disputes. They begin as a run of events on site that nobody recorded properly at the time.
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Proceedings in Arabic, explained to you in plain terms.
The short answer
This page sets out the arguments that actually arise on projects here, how standard form contracts including FIDIC get amended and why the amendments matter more than the form, what the dispute looks like from each side of the table, how these matters are resolved in the UAE, and what to gather before you instruct anyone.
On this page
- The disputes that actually arise
- Standard forms, and why the amendments matter more
- Where you sit changes the argument
- How a construction dispute in the UAE is resolved
- Records decide construction cases
- How we work on construction matters
- What to gather before you instruct us
- Questions people ask us
Ten free minutes
Enough to say whether this needs a lawyer at all.
The disputes that actually arise
Construction law firms in Dubai see the same handful of arguments on project after project. The facts change, the shape does not.
Delay and extension of time
The most common claim on any site. Four questions decide it: what caused the delay, whether notice was given in the form and time the contract requires, whether the delay actually affected the critical path, and whether the entitlement is time only or time and money. Most of these are won on programme evidence and site records, not on the wording of the clause.
Variations and additional work
Work gets instructed in a meeting, drawings get reissued, scope grows. The argument is whether the extra work was a variation under the contract, whether the person who instructed it had authority to do so, and how it is valued. A contractor who did the work and never priced it at the time is in a weaker position than they expect.
Payment and certification
Applications get cut, certificates get delayed, or a sum is certified and then not paid. Retention is the other half of this: money held back and not released when the contract says it should be. We publish no retention figure and no release schedule, because both come from your contract rather than from a standard.
Defects
A defect claim can arrive during the works, at handover, during the maintenance period, or long after completion under the structural liability that UAE law places on contractors and designers. That long tail liability is misdescribed constantly online, including how long it lasts, what it covers and whether a contract can exclude it. We publish no period for it.
Termination and suspension
Termination is the step that is hardest to undo. Whether a party can suspend for non payment, whether a default notice was valid, and whether termination was lawful or itself a repudiation are all fought after the fact, when the site is already empty. Take advice before you send the letter, not after.
Bonds and guarantees
Advance payment guarantees and performance bonds are often drafted to pay on demand, which means the bank pays against a written call rather than against proof of breach. Contractors usually discover that only when the call is made.
Standard forms, and why the amendments matter more
FIDIC and the forms used here
A FIDIC contract in Dubai is common on private and internationally funded work. FIDIC publishes a suite of books that allocate design responsibility and risk differently, so the book matters before the clause does. Public sector projects and master developers often use their own forms, some based on FIDIC and some not.
The particular conditions carry the risk
Nobody signs an unamended standard form. The general conditions get overwritten by particular conditions, and that is where the payment terms, the notice regime, the caps, the exclusions and the dispute clause actually sit. We read the amendments before we read anything else. A heavily amended FIDIC contract can allocate risk in a way the published form never did, and calling it FIDIC tells you very little on its own.
The contract is a chain
The main contract is one document in a set: the letter of intent, the subcontracts, the supply agreements, the minutes, site instructions, variation orders and the accepted programme. Subcontracts often try to pass down main contract obligations without passing down the matching entitlements, and the gap only shows when a claim has to travel up the chain. Where the underlying agreement needs rewriting rather than arguing about, that is commercial contract work.
The law behind the form
A contract performed here is usually governed by UAE law, and mandatory provisions of that law apply whatever the form says. Concepts imported from English practice do not all survive the trip.
Where you sit changes the argument
Employers and developers
Employers are usually defending delay and variation claims while pressing for completion, quality and liquidated damages. Where the project is a sold development, the contract dispute runs alongside obligations to purchasers, which is real estate and property work.
Main contractors
Contractors are usually claiming time and money upward while managing the same claims coming at them from below. Cash is the real pressure, so the payment provisions and the security get attention before the merits do.
Subcontractors and suppliers
Subcontractors are often paid last and told the main contractor has not been paid either. Whether that is an answer depends entirely on the words in the subcontract.
Consultants, engineers and architects
A consultant can face a claim for design or for supervision. On many forms the engineer both administers the contract for the employer and certifies sums due to the contractor, and that dual position is itself a source of argument.
How a construction dispute in the UAE is resolved
Why many go to arbitration
Construction contracts of any size here usually contain an arbitration clause, because the parties want a tribunal that can read a programme and a case that can run in English. That choice is made at signature, not when the dispute starts. Read the clause before you file anything, and see our page on arbitration and dispute resolution.
Steps the contract makes you take first
Many forms require a decision from the engineer or a dispute board, or a period of amicable settlement, before a claim can proceed. Skipping a step can cost you the claim on a procedural point.
The onshore courts
Where there is no arbitration clause, the claim goes to the UAE courts, in Arabic, with documents legally translated. Technical cases are commonly referred to an expert appointed by the court, and that report tends to shape the outcome.
Time limits
There are limits on how long you can wait, and they differ depending on what you are claiming and against whom. We publish no period.
Records decide construction cases
Contemporaneous means written at the time by someone who was there, not reconstructed afterwards for the claim. Daily records, site diaries, labour and plant returns, progress photographs with dates, minutes, the accepted baseline programme and every revision of it, requests for information and the replies, and instructions in writing.
Notice is the other half. Most forms require notice of an event within a set time, in a set form, to a named person. A claim that is right on the facts can still fail because a letter went to the wrong address or went late. If something has happened on site this week that may cost you time or money, put it in writing this week.
How we work on construction matters
What construction lawyers in Dubai do changes with the stage the project has reached. We start with the contract and the amendments, then the correspondence and the programme, then the money. In practice that means advising on notices while a project is live, preparing or answering delay and variation claims, negotiating settlements and final accounts, and running the dispute through arbitration or the courts when it goes that far. Our basis of charging is on the legal fees page.
What to gather before you instruct us
The signed contract with every annex, amendment and side letter. The subcontracts or main contract above you. The accepted programme and each revision. Payment applications, certificates and statements. Every notice already served, in both directions. Site records, minutes and progress photographs. Any expert or survey report. A short timeline with dates and amounts.
Questions people ask us
Do I have to give notice before claiming extra time?
Almost always, and usually within a period and in a form the contract fixes. Give the notice even if you are unsure whether the claim will be pursued. It costs nothing and it preserves the position.
My contract says FIDIC. Does the standard wording apply?
Only where the particular conditions have not changed it, and they usually have. The amended clause governs, so the first job is to read the two documents together.
The project finished and the retention has not been released. What can I do?
Check what the contract makes release conditional on, usually a certificate or the end of a defects period, then serve a demand that identifies the sum and the clause. If it stays unpaid the claim follows the dispute clause in your contract.
Can a claim be brought for defects years after handover?
UAE law imposes a form of structural liability on contractors and designers that outlasts the maintenance period, and it is not the same thing as a contractual defects liability period. The length and reach of it are commonly misreported.
Does a construction dispute have to go to arbitration?
Only if the contract sends it there. Where it does, filing in court instead usually wastes months.
Do you act for subcontractors as well as main contractors?
Yes, and for employers and consultants. We check for conflicts before taking on a matter on a project where we already act.
Speak to a construction lawyer in Dubai
Send us the contract, the amendments and the last three months of correspondence before you take a position. Whether you are claiming, defending or trying to stop a project reaching a dispute at all, the first step is the same: establish what the contract actually requires of you, and by when.
Call us on +971 50 747 9570 or email help@lawyerindubai.ae. Our office is at Empire Height Towers, Marasi Drive, Business Bay, Dubai. You can also reach us through our contact page.
Related pages: arbitration and dispute resolution, real estate lawyers, commercial contracts, legal fees.
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