You’ve chosen the area in Dubai that best suits you to live in and found what you think is the perfect home but before you sign on the dotted line you should be asking yourself is there anything else I should be looking out for? I recently put this question to long-term expats in Dubai and these were their top tips.

Maintenance
Who pays for things that go wrong.  Make sure it is clearly stipulated on the contract which party pays for what.  The usual is that the landlord pays for major maintenance:

air-conditioning
major plumbing i.e. when the water heater breaks, major leakage, broken shower
structural repair
pool maintenance

and the tenant pays for minor i.e. bulb replacement

For items that the landlord maintains, if they do break what is the procedure for getting these fixed? Stipulate a time limit ie within 24 hours otherwise you could end up waiting days in 50 degrees heat for your air-conditioning to be fixed.

Get your landlord to agree to the full cleaning of your air-conditioning system twice a year.

Painting – Make sure you agree in the contract that the property is handed over to you cleaned and freshly painted.  However, if you want to use your own colours provide the painters with the paint but clearly state what rooms are to be painted in which colours.

Existing Damage On moving in to the property view the property with the landlords agent and take photos of all damaged items within the property and make sure these are logged that these things were broken before you moved in so you do not have to pay for damages when you leave.

Neighbourhood
Visit the property at different times of the day to gauge how noisy the neighbourhood might be

are there lots of young children’s toys in garden next door
does it look like your neighbours do lots of evening entertaining
is there a mosque nearby
do the neighbours keep cockerels!
if you are on a main road visit in the evening (Friday) and check there are not ‘boy racers’ going up and down the road all night.
barking dogs

Parking – Can you easily park near your property without having to feed parking meters.