The Abu Dhabi Government has announced plans to protect tenants from volatile rents.

Last month, Sheikh Khalifa, President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, signed a law that should clarify the legal rights of landlords and tenants.

One of the key features of the new regulations, known as Law Number 4, will be a clause requiring landlords to register rental agreements showing how much tenants pay. This should allow authorities to clamp down on rogue landlords breaking the price cap.

“Law Number 4 is talking about ‘registering leases’,” says David Nunn, a partner at the law firm Simmons and Simmons. “This is very important. If the municipality starts registering the contracts, this will introduce much more transparency and landlords will find it difficult to increase a rent in excess of the cap.”

The National