TRW & Co · Construction
Decennial Liability in the UAE: The Ten-Year Guarantee for Contractors and Engineers
Decennial liability UAE law imposes makes contractors and engineers jointly liable for ten years if a building collapses or develops defects threatening its stability or safety. The guarantee cannot be excluded or capped, claims must be brought within three years of discovery, and the new Civil Transactions Law clarifies how it applies to designers, supervisors and subcontractors.
Key pointUnder the new Civil Transactions Law the contractor's recourse against subcontractors sits outside the decennial regime, so a main contractor can carry ten years of strict exposure upstream while its downstream claims depend on fault, subcontract wording and ordinary limitation.
At a glance
Ten years from delivery
Contractor and engineer are jointly liable for collapse or defects threatening stability or safety that occur within ten years of the employer taking delivery.
Three-year claim window
A decennial claim cannot be heard after three years from the collapse or discovery of the defect, so late discoveries can extend exposure beyond year ten.
Cannot be contracted out
Any term exempting the contractor or engineer from the statutory guarantee, or limiting it, is void, whatever the FIDIC particular conditions say.
New code from June 2026
Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025 retains the regime, separating design and supervision liability and excluding subcontractor recourse from the decennial rules.
Dubai developer warranties
For Dubai strata buildings the developer also owes ten years for structural parts and one year for installations under Law No. 6 of 2019.
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Decennial liability UAE law imposes is a statutory ten-year guarantee: the contractor and the engineer who designed and supervised a building or fixed installation are jointly liable if it collapses wholly or partly, or develops defects that threaten its stability or safety, within ten years of handover. The guarantee cannot be excluded or capped by contract, and the new Civil Transactions Law in force since 1 June 2026 keeps it while clarifying engineers' roles and subcontractor recourse.
This guide explains how the regime works in practice for developers, contractors, consultants, insurers and buyers of completed buildings, how it sits alongside FIDIC defects periods and Dubai's developer warranties, and what to put in contracts and subcontracts now. It reflects the position as of October 2026.
The short answer: what decennial liability in the UAE means
Onshore, decennial liability UAE contractors face is part of the federal law on contracting (muqawala). It applies whatever the construction contract says. In outline:
- Who is liable. The main contractor and the engineer (architect) who prepared the design and supervised its execution, jointly towards the employer.
- What triggers it. Total or partial collapse of a building or fixed installation, or a defect that threatens its structural integrity or safety, even if nothing has yet fallen down.
- How long. Ten years, running from the employer's taking delivery of the works.
- When to sue. A claim cannot be heard after three years from the collapse or the discovery of the defect.
- Contracting out. Any term that exempts the contractor or engineer from the guarantee, or limits it, is void.
The regime is strict. The employer does not have to prove negligence; it must show that a qualifying collapse or defect occurred within the period. A defect in the land itself, or the employer's own approval of the defective construction, does not provide a defence.
The legal framework after 1 June 2026
For four decades the rules sat in Articles 880 to 883 of the 1985 Civil Transactions Law (Federal Law No. 5 of 1985). The Civil Transactions Law issued by Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025 replaced that code with effect from 1 June 2026 and restates the regime in its chapter on contracting. Our overview of the new UAE Civil Transactions Law covers the wider changes.
Commentators agree that the substance of decennial liability UAE law imposes is retained, with three clarifications that matter in practice:
- Design versus supervision. An engineer engaged only to design is responsible for defects in the design, not for the way it was built. An engineer engaged only to supervise is jointly liable with the contractor for execution defects that occurred under its supervision.
- Subcontractor recourse. The decennial rules govern the employer's claim against the contractor and engineer. They do not apply to the contractor's own recourse against its subcontractors, which must rest on the subcontract or general fault-based liability.
- Short-life structures. Where the parties intended a structure to stand for less than ten years, the guarantee is aligned to that intended life. This is a narrow exception, not a general licence to contract out.
Which code applies to a given project depends on the transitional rules, which generally look to when the contract was made. Projects signed before 1 June 2026 will therefore continue to be argued partly under the 1985 provisions for years to come, which is why the article numbers you see in claim letters may differ between projects.
Dubai's developer warranties for jointly owned buildings
Dubai adds a separate layer for strata buildings. Under Article 40 of Law No. 6 of 2019 on jointly owned real property, the developer remains liable for ten years from the project's completion certificate to remedy defects in the structural parts, and for one year from handover of a unit to repair or replace defective installations such as mechanical, electrical, sanitary and sewerage works. Agreements that contradict that article are void. These obligations run from the developer to unit owners and sit alongside, not instead of, the contractor's and engineer's civil-law guarantee to the developer.
Building permits, inspections and completion certificates in Dubai are issued through Dubai Municipality and the relevant master developer or free zone authority, and those records usually fix the dates that start the clocks.
How decennial liability UAE claims work in practice
Most claims follow a predictable path. The steps below assume an onshore project and a contract with an arbitration clause or onshore court jurisdiction.
- Identify the defect and preserve evidence. Commission an independent structural survey, photograph and log the condition, and keep samples where possible. Early evidence decides whether the defect threatens stability or safety, which is the line between a decennial claim and an ordinary defects claim.
- Fix the dates. Establish the date of taking delivery (handover or taking-over certificate) and the date the defect was discovered. The first starts the ten-year guarantee; the second starts the three-year window to bring the claim.
- Map the parties. Identify the main contractor, the design consultant, any separate supervision consultant and, for strata buildings, the developer. Check whether each entity still exists and is solvent, and what insurance it held.
- Notify formally. Send written notice to the contractor and engineer, and to their insurers where policies require it. Invite inspection and propose interim safety measures; urgent works should not wait for liability to be resolved.
- Choose the forum. Follow the dispute clause. Many construction contracts provide for arbitration, often at the Dubai International Arbitration Centre; otherwise the claim goes to the onshore courts.
- Expect an expert. Courts and tribunals rely heavily on appointed engineering experts. Prepare a clear chronology, drawings, method statements and inspection records for the expert's review.
- Pursue recourse in parallel. A contractor facing a claim should notify subcontractors and suppliers immediately and protect its own limitation position against them rather than waiting for the employer's case to end.
Our construction disputes practice works through these steps with clients, and coordinates technical experts from the outset.
Decennial liability versus contractual defects regimes
Employers and contractors often confuse three different regimes. They run in parallel, with different scopes and clocks.
| Regime | Source | Who owes it | What it covers | Period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decennial liability | Civil Transactions Law (mandatory) | Contractor and engineer, jointly, to the employer | Collapse and defects threatening stability or safety | Ten years from delivery; claim within three years of collapse or discovery |
| Contractual defects period | Construction contract, e.g. FIDIC defects notification period | Contractor to the employer | Any defect notified within the period, structural or not | As agreed, commonly one or two years from taking-over |
| Developer structural warranty (Dubai strata) | Law No. 6 of 2019, Article 40(a) | Developer to unit owners | Defects in structural parts | Ten years from the completion certificate |
| Developer installations warranty (Dubai strata) | Law No. 6 of 2019, Article 40(b) | Developer to unit owners | Mechanical, electrical, sanitary, sewerage and similar installations | One year from unit handover |
| General contract and latent defects claims | Civil Transactions Law general rules and the contract | The contracting party in breach | Non-structural defects and other breaches | Ordinary limitation rules |
The practical consequence is that a FIDIC performance certificate closes the contractual defects period but not the statutory guarantee. A clean certificate in year two leaves eight more years of exposure for structural defects. See our guide to construction contracts in the UAE for how the standard forms interact with the code.
Who carries decennial liability UAE projects allocate
Main contractors
The main contractor answers to the employer for the whole of the works, including work it subcontracted. Pointing to a subcontractor's error is not a defence to the employer's claim. Design-and-build and EPC contractors carry both the construction and the design side of the exposure, which makes professional indemnity cover as important as contractors' all-risks insurance.
Design and supervision consultants
Liability now tracks the appointment more clearly. A pure designer answers for design defects. A pure supervisor answers jointly with the contractor for execution defects under its supervision. A consultant that both designed and supervised carries both. Appointment letters should describe the scope precisely, because a vague scope invites the argument that the consultant supervised everything.
Subcontractors and suppliers
Subcontractors do not owe the statutory guarantee to the employer, and the new code confirms that the contractor's recourse against them sits outside the decennial regime. That recourse is only as good as the subcontract: express defects obligations, indemnities, insurance, document retention and limitation provisions drafted with a ten-year exposure in mind.
Developers and later owners
The guarantee is owed to the employer, typically the developer. Buyers of completed units in Dubai strata buildings usually look first to the developer's statutory warranties under Law No. 6 of 2019, and the developer then turns to its contractor and consultants. Where a building changes hands, the buyer's position against the original contractor is less direct, so transfer or assignment of rights should be addressed in the sale documents. Our note on jointly owned property covers owners' associations and service charges.
Decennial liability UAE contractors accept upstream is ten years long and strict, while their recourse downstream depends on fault, contract wording and ordinary limitation. Close that gap in the subcontract and the insurance programme before work starts, not when the employer's claim arrives.
Illustrative scenario: cracking in year seven
This scenario is illustrative only and does not describe any real project or client.
A developer completed a mid-rise residential building in Dubai under an amended FIDIC Yellow Book. The contractor designed and built the structure; a separate consultant supervised. Seven years after taking-over, the owners' association reports widening cracks in transfer beams on a podium level. The developer's structural engineer concludes that the cracking reflects an under-designed reinforcement detail and threatens the beams' load-bearing capacity.
The developer is exposed to unit owners under the ten-year structural warranty, which runs from the completion certificate. It in turn has a decennial claim against the design-and-build contractor, and potentially the supervising consultant if execution under its supervision contributed. The FIDIC defects period ended years ago, so the contract's defects clause is no longer the route; the statutory guarantee is.
The developer must bring its claim within three years of discovering the defect. The contractor notifies its professional indemnity insurer and its structural design subconsultant. Because its recourse against the subconsultant is not governed by the decennial rules, the contractor's lawyers check the subconsultancy agreement for defects obligations, the limitation position and any liability cap, and issue protective proceedings if time is short. An appointed expert will ultimately apportion responsibility between design and execution.
Risks and common mistakes
Relying on a limitation-of-liability cap
Global caps, exclusions of consequential loss and time bars in construction contracts are standard, but a term that exempts the contractor or engineer from the statutory guarantee, or limits it, is void. A cap may still operate on other heads of claim, so the drafting should separate decennial exposure from ordinary contractual liability rather than leave a court to decide how far the cap survives. Parties can agree more generous protection for the employer; they cannot agree less than the law gives.
Treating the performance certificate as a release
Contractors sometimes assume that once the employer issues the performance certificate or final payment certificate, defect exposure is closed. That is true of the contractual defects regime only. Structural claims under decennial liability UAE law imposes can still be brought for the balance of the ten years, and the three-year window to sue can extend beyond the tenth anniversary if the defect surfaces late. Keep project records, drawings and inspection reports for well over a decade.
Leaving subcontracts on short-form terms
Under the new code, the contractor's recourse against subcontractors is not governed by the decennial rules, so a short-form subcontract with a one-year defects period and a low cap can leave the contractor carrying the structural risk alone. Specialist packages that affect structure, such as piling, foundations, post-tensioning and facade anchorage, deserve back-to-back defects obligations, indemnities, insurance requirements and evidence-retention duties.
Insurance that lapses before the exposure does
Annual professional indemnity policies respond to claims made during the policy year. A consultant or design-and-build contractor that stops renewing, or changes insurer on worse terms, may have no cover when a claim arrives in year eight. Long-tail or project-specific cover, and dedicated decennial insurance where available and economic, should be considered at tender stage. Check also that policy definitions of structural defect match the statutory trigger.
Missing the three-year window
The ten-year guarantee and the three-year claim period are different clocks. Owners and developers who spend years negotiating informally after discovering a defect can find the claim time-barred. Record the date of discovery, take advice early, and consider standstill agreements in writing if settlement talks are realistic. Our guide to limitation periods in the UAE explains how other claims are affected by the new code.
Free zones, the DIFC and ADGM
In ordinary free zones, such as those in Dubai and the northern emirates, civil and commercial matters are generally governed by federal law, so the onshore regime is the starting point for projects built there. Free zone authorities often add their own building regulations and completion processes, which affect the dates and documents in any claim.
The DIFC and ADGM have their own civil and commercial law, drawn from common-law models. Whether, and how, the federal decennial regime applies to a building within those centres, or to a contract governed by their law, needs case-specific analysis of the governing law, the location of the works and any mandatory rules. Do not assume that choosing English, DIFC or ADGM law for an onshore project removes the statutory guarantee.
Cross-border angle for international contractors and consultants
Contractors and consultants from the UK, China, India, Singapore and Bangladesh often bring home-country forms and insurance assumptions. English-law practice, for example, relies on negotiated latent defects periods and caps that do not translate to an onshore UAE project. Decennial liability UAE rules apply to the works regardless of where the contractor is incorporated.
Parent company guarantees and bonds issued abroad should be read with the ten-year horizon in mind, and so should the dissolution of project companies after completion. Where a joint venture partner exits the UAE, the employer may need to pursue it and its assets overseas, which raises recognition and enforcement questions. TRW & Co's offices in Dhaka, London, Singapore and China help coordinate that work.
Checklist: managing decennial liability UAE exposure
- Confirm which Civil Transactions Law applies to each project by reference to the contract date.
- Define design and supervision scopes precisely in every consultant appointment.
- Separate statutory decennial exposure from contractual caps and exclusions in the drafting.
- Flow structural defects obligations, indemnities and insurance down to key subcontractors.
- Buy professional indemnity and, where justified, decennial insurance with a tail matching the exposure.
- Record taking-over, completion certificate and unit handover dates in one place.
- Keep drawings, method statements, test results and inspection records for the full period and beyond.
- On discovering a structural defect, diarise the three-year claim deadline immediately.
- Notify insurers, subconsultants and subcontractors early and protect recourse claims.
TRW & Co advises developers, contractors and consultants on construction contract drafting, defects strategy and claims, and on real estate development in the UAE. Where representation before UAE onshore courts or the DIFC/ADGM Courts is required, we work alongside locally licensed advocates and registered practitioners. To review a contract, subcontract or live claim, contact our Dubai team at info@trw.co or +971 58 942 1012.
Frequently asked questions
01What is decennial liability in the UAE?
It is a mandatory ten-year guarantee under the federal Civil Transactions Law. The contractor and the engineer who designed and supervised a building or fixed installation are jointly liable to the employer if it collapses wholly or partly, or develops defects threatening its stability or safety, within ten years of delivery. The employer need not prove negligence. A defect in the land or the employer's approval of the defective construction is not a defence. The regime continues under the new code in force since 1 June 2026.
02Can decennial liability be excluded or capped in a construction contract?
No. Any condition intended to exempt the contractor or engineer from the statutory guarantee, or to limit it, is void. Caps and exclusions in FIDIC particular conditions can still operate on ordinary contractual claims, but they do not cut down the statutory guarantee. The only narrow adjustment is for structures the parties intended to stand for less than ten years. Parties remain free to give the employer more protection than the law requires.
03When does the ten-year period start and how long do I have to sue?
The ten-year guarantee runs from the date the employer takes delivery of the works, usually evidenced by handover or a taking-over certificate. Separately, a claim cannot be heard after three years from the collapse or the discovery of the defect. The two clocks interact: a defect discovered in year nine can still be pursued after the tenth anniversary, provided proceedings start within three years of discovery. Record the discovery date carefully.
04Are subcontractors liable under decennial liability?
Subcontractors do not owe the statutory guarantee to the employer; the main contractor answers for the whole works. The new Civil Transactions Law confirms that the decennial rules do not apply to the contractor's recourse against subcontractors. That recourse must therefore rest on the subcontract or general fault-based liability, subject to ordinary limitation rules. Main contractors should flow defects obligations, indemnities and insurance requirements down to structural subcontractors.
05Does a FIDIC defects notification period replace decennial liability?
No. The FIDIC defects notification period is a contractual regime for remedying defects notified during that window, after which a performance certificate is issued. Decennial liability is statutory and runs in parallel for ten years from delivery for collapse and structural or safety defects. A contractor with a performance certificate in hand can still face a decennial claim years later, so records and insurance should be kept for the full period.
06What warranties does a Dubai developer give to unit buyers?
For jointly owned property in Dubai, Article 40 of Law No. 6 of 2019 makes the developer liable for ten years from the project's completion certificate to remedy defects in structural parts, and for one year from handover of a unit to repair or replace defective installations such as mechanical, electrical, sanitary and sewerage works. Contrary agreements are void. These obligations run to owners and sit alongside the contractor's and engineer's civil-law guarantee to the developer.
Sources and official materials
- Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025 Promulgating the Civil Transactions Law — New civil code in force from 1 June 2026, including contracting and decennial liability
- Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019 Concerning Ownership of Jointly Owned Real Property — Article 40 developer warranties for structural parts and installations
- Federal Law No. 6 of 2018 on Arbitration — Framework for arbitrating construction and defects disputes
- Dubai Municipality — Building permits, inspections and completion in Dubai
- Dubai International Arbitration Centre — Main Dubai institution for construction arbitration
General information only, current as at 27 October 2026. It is not legal advice and does not create a lawyer–client relationship. UAE law differs between the onshore jurisdiction, the DIFC, ADGM and the free zones, and changes frequently; check current official sources and take advice on the facts of your matter.
