Dubai court orders man to return Dhs828,000 to his ex-wife

A European woman paid over Dhs1.6 million from her own personal funds to purchase a property during her marriage, registering the ownership equally between herself and her husband. Following their separation, she filed a lawsuit with the competent court, seeking to recover from her ex-husband the portion of the funds she had paid on his behalf.

Dubai Real Estate Court ruled that the ex-husband must pay Dhs828,000 plus 5 per cent annual interest from the date of the claim until full payment is made.

Earlier, a European couple purchased a residential unit in November 2024 for Dhs4.239 million under an installment-based payment plan with ownership registered equally between them.

The plaintiff stated that she personally covered the installments due to the real estate developer and the registration fees, using her own bank account without any contribution from her ex-husband.

By April 2026, the total amount she had paid reached Dhs1.653 million, comprising Dhs1.483 million in installments and Dhs169,000 in registration fees, she added.

The plaintiff engaged an expert consultant to determine each party’s share of the amounts paid. The expert’s report concluded that the defendant’s share amounted to Dhs828,000, given that the property was registered in both their names in equal shares.

The plaintiff requested that the defendant be ordered to pay this amount as well as any future installments. As a precautionary measure, she requested that the property registration be amended to reflect her sole ownership of the unit.

The court clarified that bank statements, transfer notices, and the account statement for the unit demonstrated that the plaintiff had made the payments from her own personal account, while the documents contained no evidence that the defendant had contributed to the payments or fulfilled his share.

The court affirmed that if a person acquired the property of another without a legitimate legal basis, they would be obligated to return it. Hence, the defendant is required to pay his share of the amounts that the plaintiff covered on his behalf, it added.

The court ordered the defendant to pay Dhs828,000 along with 5 per cent annual interest from the date the legal claim was filed until full payment is made. It also ordered him to pay the incurred charges and expenses plus Dhs1,000 in lawyer’s fees.

The court deemed the request to compel payment of future installments premature, while the alternative request concerning the amendment of the unit’s registration no longer required consideration, given that the primary claim had been granted.