Dubai Court of Cassation (General Assembly), Resolution No. 1 of 2025, 11 February 2025
Under Article 1166 of the Civil Transactions Law (as replaced by Federal Decree-Law No. 30 of 2020), where co-owned real property cannot be divided in kind, or division would cause harm or a serious loss of value, any co-owner may sell his share to another co-owner or ask the court to sell it by auction, and if the share cannot be sold he may ask for the whole property to be sold. The General Assembly added a condition: the sale of the whole must not harm co-owners who occupy the property, particularly the elderly, minors, unmarried, divorced or widowed women and persons with disabilities, especially where they have no other suitable home. The trial judge weighs this and must give objective, logical reasons.
At the request of the President of the Court of Cassation, the General Assembly was asked to lay down rules for ending co-ownership (فض الشيوع) of real property.
The Assembly started from Article 1166 of the Civil Transactions Law as replaced by Federal Decree-Law No. 30 of 2020. Where division in kind is impossible, or would cause harm or a large reduction in value, any co-owner may sell his share to another co-owner or ask the judge to sell it by the method the law prescribes; if the share cannot be sold, he may ask for the whole property to be sold and the price divided according to the shares. The judge may, at a co-owner's request, first restrict the auction to the co-owners. A sale request is not accepted if it causes greater harm to the other co-owners, and the same person may not make a new request within one year of the earlier refusal or until the harm ends, whichever is sooner.
Applying that text, the Assembly resolved, by the majority required under Article 20(b) of Dubai Law No. 13 of 2016 on the Judicial Authority, that a co-owner may seek the sale of his share and, failing that, of the whole property, provided that the sale does not harm any co-owner who occupies it. It singled out the elderly, minors, unmarried, divorced and widowed women and persons with disabilities, especially where the harm comes from having no other home or being unable to obtain a suitable alternative. All of this is left to the discretion of the trial judge, in line with the law and the requirements of justice and the circumstances of the occupant, but the judge's decision or judgment must rest on objective and logical reasons that justify the result.
Co-owned homes are common in Dubai, particularly after inheritance or joint family purchases. A co-owner who wants to exit cannot assume that a forced sale of the whole will follow automatically when division is impossible; the position of co-owners who live in the property, and the availability of alternative housing for them, can defeat or delay the sale. The resolution was decided under the 1985 Civil Transactions Law as amended in 2020.
| Article 1166 of Federal Law No. 5 of 1985 (Civil Transactions Law), as replaced by Federal Decree-Law No. 30 of 2020 — text of article 1166 Decided under this law; it has been replaced by Civil Transactions Law 2025. |
| Article 20 of Dubai Law No. 13 of 2016 on the Judicial Authority in the Emirate of Dubai (powers and majority of the General Assembly) |
“بِشَرط أَلَّا يُلحقَ أَيٌّ مِن الشركاء شَاغلي العقار ضررًا بسبب بيعه”Short quotation from the judgment as published by the court. The full judgment is on the court’s official service.
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