What a UAE will or power of attorney costs
There is no single UAE figure, and any page giving you one number is merging two different things. Every transaction has an authority fee, set and collected by the registry, court or department, and separately a professional fee charged by whoever prepares the document. This page collects only the first kind: what each authority publishes, in its own words, with the date we last checked it. Where an authority publishes nothing, this page says so instead of filling the gap - and on the UAE side that is more often than you would expect.
Two fees, and they should never reach you as one number
The authority fee is not negotiable and is not anybody's margin. DIFC Courts sets what it charges to register a will; the Rental Disputes Center sets what it charges to open a case. Those figures are published, they change without notice, and they are paid to that body.
The professional fee is what a firm or a service charges to prepare, check and coordinate the document. It is a separate decision, and it is the only part anybody can compete on.
Merging the two is the single most common way UAE fee pages mislead. A quoted “all-in” price hides which half you could have reduced, and it makes a provider look expensive or cheap for reasons that have nothing to do with the provider. Nothing on this page is a Deedbox price. Ours are published on each service page, always beside the authority figure and never added to it.
DIFC Courts publishes a fee for each of six will types
This is the clearest published schedule of the three UAE wills routes, and the spread inside it is wide: the broadest will costs twice the narrowest. A Mirror pair, meaning two wills of the same type registered together for a couple, is published alongside each single figure and is never simply double.
| Will type | Single | Mirror pair |
|---|---|---|
| Full Will | AED 10,000 | AED 15,000 |
| Property Will | AED 7,500 | AED 10,000 |
| Financial Assets Will | AED 5,000 | AED 7,500 |
| Business Owners Will | AED 5,000 | AED 7,500 |
| Guardianship Will | AED 5,000 | AED 7,500 |
| Digital Assets Will | AED 5,000 | AED 7,500 |
Source: DIFC Courts Wills Service
Registering a DIFC will is not the last fee
Three further figures are published and they are the ones people budget for least. A modification is made by signing a new will at “AED 550 per Will”. A cancellation fee of “AED 1,000 per Will is non-refundable”. And after a death, a Grant of Probate is published at “USD 1,500” - in dollars, where the registration fees are in dirhams, which is the registry’s own choice and not a conversion.
Per Will is the phrase to notice. A couple who register a Mirror pair and later change the same provision in both documents pay the modification fee twice. A Mirror pair is cheaper to register than two separate wills and no cheaper to amend.
Source: DIFC Courts, Wills FAQ
The Rental Disputes Center charges a percentage, not a price
RDC is the only UAE body in this list that publishes a fee attached directly to presenting a power of attorney, which makes it unusually useful evidence: “AED 25 Registration of Power of Attorney (if applicable)”. Its FAQ confirms the same figure in answer to the question directly.
The case fee itself is a percentage with a floor and a ceiling, so the only honest way to state it is as a calculation.
| What | How it is calculated | Floor and ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| Eviction, rent claim, lease renewal, termination | 3.5% of annual rent or lease value | “not less than (AED 500) and not more than (AED 20,000)” |
| Monetary claims | 3.5% of the claimed amount | “not less than (AED 500) and not more than (AED 15,000)” |
| Execution, in eviction | 1% of the annual lease amount | “AED 5000 (Maximum)” |
| Registering a power of attorney | Flat, “if applicable” | AED 25 |
| Process service | Flat | AED 100 |
| Knowledge and innovation fees | Flat, each | AED 10 |
| Filing through a Trustees centre | Added to the above | “AED 130 + VAT” |
| Amicable settlement | Refund on settling | “half of the court fee paid for basic claims is refunded” |
Dubai Land Department: named fees, and one that is free
For a title transfer, DLD publishes AED 250 per title deed, map fees of AED 100 to AED 250 depending on the property, and AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation fees per drawing.
The one worth knowing in advance is the one that costs nothing. DLD publishes cancellation of a power of attorney as a free service, carried out in person. If you have granted a property power of attorney and want it to stop, the fee is not the obstacle - attending is.
DEWA: deposits and connection charges
Utility charges are not document fees, but they are the numbers people are usually trying to plan around when they move, and DEWA publishes them plainly.
| What | DEWA’s published figure |
|---|---|
| Security deposit, flat | D 2,000 |
| Security deposit, villa | D 4,000 |
| Connecting or disconnecting, small meters | D 125 |
| Connecting or disconnecting, large meters | D 300 |
| Registration, knowledge and innovation fees | D 10 each |
| Clearance certificate | D 10 |
| Refund by IBAN | No fee |
| Refund by cheque | D 20 plus VAT |
Abu Dhabi publishes a formula rather than a figure
The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department’s guidance manual for notarisation services sets out a fee formula for powers of attorney rather than a flat price, calculated against the period of validity, alongside twelve named power-of-attorney services.
It also publishes the cap that most UAE pages quote without saying whose it is: “The maximum period for the POA validity is 3 calendar years after the date of notarisation”, extended for the Litigation POA to “5 years for lawyers”. That is Abu Dhabi’s published rule for Abu Dhabi notarisation. It is not a UAE-wide rule, and we have found no equivalent published cap for Dubai.
One caveat we will not bury: that manual is dated July 2023. Every figure in it should be treated as ADJD’s published guidance of that date and re-checked before you rely on it.
What nobody publishes
This section is the reason to trust the rest of the page. Three of the figures a reader most wants are simply not published anywhere we can reach, and filling them by inference from a neighbouring emirate would make everything above less reliable rather than more useful.
The ADJD will registration fee. Its non-Muslim wills page publishes a step that reads “The court user pays the fees” and states no amount anywhere on it.
Anything from Dubai Courts. Its site did not respond to us at all, so no robots file could even be read, and we therefore read nothing there. We hold no Dubai Courts will fee, litigation power-of-attorney fee, or notarisation fee - and neither, as far as we can tell, does any page that quotes one.
Any DEWA fee for a representative. DEWA publishes no power-of-attorney requirement on its current service pages at all, so there is no fee to publish.
If you see one of these three quoted confidently elsewhere, ask where it came from. That is not a rhetorical flourish; it is the test we apply to ourselves before anything reaches this site.
Questions
What does a will cost in the UAE?
It depends entirely on the registry. DIFC Courts publishes AED 5,000 to AED 10,000 for a single will depending on type, and AED 7,500 to AED 15,000 for a Mirror pair. The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department publishes no amount at all. Dubai Courts we cannot read. Any figure presented as “the UAE will fee” is one registry’s number wearing a national label, and usually with a provider’s fee folded in.
Why does nobody quote one price for a power of attorney?
Because the authorities do not price them the same way. Abu Dhabi publishes a formula based on the validity period. The Rental Disputes Center publishes a flat AED 25 to register one against a case. Dubai Land Department charges nothing to cancel one. DEWA does not mention them. A single national figure would have to average four unrelated pricing models.
Are these your prices?
No. Every figure on this page is published by the authority named beside it and is paid to that authority. Our professional fee is separate, appears on each service page, and is always shown next to the relevant authority fee rather than added to it. If a quote you receive anywhere merges the two, ask for it split.
What does it cost to change or cancel a DIFC will?
DIFC Courts publishes a modification as signing a new will at “AED 550 per Will”, and a cancellation fee of “AED 1,000 per Will is non-refundable”. Both are charged per will, so a couple amending a Mirror pair pays twice.
How much does the Rental Disputes Center charge to file a case?
3.5% of the annual rent or lease value for eviction and rent claims, with a floor of AED 500 and a ceiling of AED 20,000. Monetary claims are also 3.5% of the amount claimed but capped at AED 15,000. Execution in an eviction is 1% of the annual lease, capped at AED 5,000. Settling at the amicable stage refunds half the court fee on basic claims.
Is there a fee to cancel a property power of attorney?
Dubai Land Department publishes cancellation of a power of attorney as free of charge, carried out in person. The cost is the trip, not the fee.
How current are these figures?
Each section carries the date we last checked that authority’s own page - 12 or 13 September 2026 for everything here except the Abu Dhabi manual, which is itself dated July 2023 and is labelled as such. Authorities change fees without notice and without announcing it, so the authority’s own page is always the version that counts on the day you transact.
What this page does not do
- Every figure here is quoted from the authority that published it, with the date we last checked. Authorities change fees without notice. Their own pages are the version that counts on the day you transact.
- This page publishes authority fees only. It quotes no professional fee, ours or anyone else’s, so that nothing on it can be mistaken for a price you would pay us.
- Abu Dhabi’s figures come from a guidance manual dated July 2023 and are stated as of that date rather than as current.
- Some Dubai Land Department material is published on a site whose robots file declines automated retrieval, and Dubai Courts did not respond to us at all. Where we could not read an authority, this page says so rather than sourcing the number elsewhere.
- What a transaction costs is not the same question as whether a document will be accepted, or whether it is the right document. Those are decided by the receiving authority, and where they turn on legal effect they are questions for a lawyer. The Deedbox is not a law firm.