Who this page is for: owners' association (OA) and community management firms in Dubai and Abu Dhabi running 1–40 buildings. Not owners looking up their own service charge — for that, use the Mollak view in the Dubai REST app.
Our bias, stated up front: Rent360 is a UAE property and rental management system. We sell a free 50-unit pilot. Everything below is checked against published sources with dates; where we could not verify something we say so. If a fact here is out of date, write to us and we will correct the page.
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1. The four obligations that break in a spreadsheet
| # | Obligation | Where it breaks | What software has to do | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | Annual service-charge budget approved by the regulator before any invoice is issued | Budget lives in Excel, the approved version and the billed version drift apart | Hold ONE approved budget per project per financial year, locked, with the approval date attached | | 2 | Invoicing per unit on the correct apportionment (unit area ratio) | Manual splits, mid-year unit subdivisions, wrong entitlement % | Recompute per-unit charge from the entitlement table, never from last year's invoice | | 3 | Arrears recovery against defaulting owners | Chase history sits in WhatsApp and personal inboxes | Dated demand log per unit: what was sent, when, to which owner, with the document attached | | 4 | Reserve fund kept separate from operating money | One bank line, one spreadsheet tab | Separate ledger, separate reporting, no netting |
Dubai's framework sits in Law No. 6 of 2019 on jointly owned property: the owner is liable for the charge, it is levied on unit area ratio, the budget is approved by RERA pre-audit, and the reserve fund sits in a separate account (Articles 16(b), 25(a), 27, 30) — <cite>as published on the Dubai Legislation portal and summarised by practitioners in September 2026</cite> (source: dlp.dubai.gov.ae via truhauz.com/mollak-dubai/, retrieved 24 Sep 2026). Mollak is the DLD's mandatory e-system for registering the community, the management company, the auditor and the budget; <cite>invoices can only be issued after approval</cite> (uaeexperthub.com, Apr 2026).
2. The 2026 change most OA firms are still catching up with — Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi is a separate regime with its own rules. A 2025 Chairman's decision from the Department of Municipalities and Transport <cite>took effect on 28 February 2026 and requires that service charges be collected in monthly or quarterly instalments rather than as a lump sum, that management companies be accredited, and it voids a fee claimed unlawfully</cite> (almaazmilawyers.com, retrieved 24 Sep 2026).
Operationally, that is not a policy note. It is a billing-engine change:
- one annual charge becomes 4 or 12 dated receivables per unit;
- your arrears report has to age by instalment, not by year;
- your reminder schedule has to fire per instalment date;
- a lump-sum invoice you already raised may need re-issuing.
If your system cannot split a charge into a dated instalment schedule per unit and age it, you will be reconciling by hand all year. We could not verify whether transitional relief applies to budgets approved before 28 Feb 2026 — check with DMT for your specific project before re-issuing anything.
3. Which software category actually fits
The UAE market splits into five categories (we mapped them in full in our buyer's guide). For an OA firm:
- Mollak-integrated OA/service-charge specialists — built for budget submission and Mollak invoice files. Right choice if service-charge billing is your whole business.
- Facility/CAFM systems — work orders, assets, PPM. Right if your pain is maintenance, not money.
- Property/lease management systems (Rent360 sits here) — leases, rent, PDC cheques, Ejari, per-unit P&L, evidence trail. Right if you also manage leased units for owners alongside the association work.
- Accounting suites — the ledger of record, weak on UAE-specific community rules.
- Enterprise real-estate suites — Yardi/MRI class. Right above roughly 5,000 units and a finance team.
Where Rent360 is the wrong tool: we do not submit budgets into Mollak for you, and we are not a CAFM. If your only job is Mollak budget submission for 30 towers, buy a category-1 specialist. Where we do fit: the mixed firm that manages associations and leased units, and is losing money in the gap — the arrears chase, the per-unit numbers, the evidence when a case goes to the tribunal.
4. Ten questions to ask any vendor before you sign
- Can you hold an approved budget version separately from the billed version, with the approval date?
- Can you compute per-unit charges from an entitlement table, and re-compute after a unit split?
- Can you split an annual charge into monthly or quarterly instalments per unit (Abu Dhabi, effective 28 Feb 2026)?
- Does the arrears report age by instalment date?
- Is every reminder, demand and notice stored dated, per unit, retrievable as a pack?
- Is the reserve fund a separate ledger, or a tab?
- Can an owner statement be produced in Arabic?
- What happens when an owner sells mid-year — does the balance follow the unit?
- Who owns the data and how do you export it if we leave?
- What is the real implementation time with our current spreadsheets, in days?
5. FAQ
Is Mollak registration mandatory? <cite>All jointly-owned properties in Dubai with shared common areas must be registered on Mollak — apartment towers, townhouse communities and mixed-use developments</cite> (realestateclubdubai.com, Apr 2026). Standalone villas without shared facilities are generally outside it.
Does Mollak apply in Abu Dhabi? No. <cite>Mollak is Dubai-specific, managed by DLD/RERA; Abu Dhabi has its own strata framework under the Department of Municipalities and Transport</cite> (realestateclubdubai.com, Apr 2026).
Can we invoice before the budget is approved? No — approval through Mollak comes first, then invoicing.
Do tenants pay service charges? In residential leases the charge is the owner's liability; some commercial leases pass it through. Check the lease.
Does Rent360 integrate with Mollak? Not today. We hold the budget, the per-unit apportionment, the instalment schedule, the arrears ageing and the evidence pack. Mollak submission stays in your specialist system or with your auditor.
What does a pilot cost? The pilot is free, up to 50 units, no card, invoiced plans only afterwards. No self-serve signup — we onboard you.
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Run it on your own data. Free 50-unit pilot, Arabic and English, set up with you: rent360.co. Tell us the building count and the emirate and we will say in the first call whether we are the right category for you — including when we are not.
Sources checked 24 September 2026. Law No. 6 of 2019 (Dubai Legislation portal); DMT Chairman's Decision No. 25 of 2025 as reported by almaazmilawyers.com; Mollak guidance via uaeexperthub.com and realestateclubdubai.com. Nothing here is legal advice.