100% refund for a cancelled off-plan project

The task

The client was a private investor from Moscow; the opponent, a Dubai developer. The client had paid into an off-plan project that was later cancelled. The task was to recover the money in full.

A cancelled project is stressful: the investor does not know where the money is, who is responsible or how long it will take. The good news is that Dubai has a dedicated mechanism to protect buyers in exactly this situation.

How refunds for cancelled projects usually work

We do not disclose the internal details of client matters, but this is the typical sequence in such cases:

1. Check the project's status. We establish whether the project has been formally cancelled by the regulator, Dubai's Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA), or whether the developer has simply stopped building. The route depends on the answer.
2. Gather the documents. The SPA, payment receipts, interim registration (Oqood) and correspondence with the developer. The key question is whether payments went into the project escrow account — under Dubai law, off-plan buyers' money must be paid there.
3. Apply to RERA. Once a project is cancelled, the law requires the buyers' payments to be returned, with the escrow account among the sources of the refund. We prepare the application and manage the process.
4. If there is no voluntary refund. Disputes over cancelled and unfinished projects are heard by Dubai's special tribunal set up to liquidate such projects, and in some cases by the courts.

See Refunds for cancelled projects and our article Getting your money back when a Dubai developer cancels a project.

The result

100% of the funds were refunded via RERA within 5 months. The matter ran remotely on a power of attorney, with weekly reports.

Outcomes depend on the project's status, where the payments went and the state of the escrow account. If your project is delayed or cancelled, start with a review of your documents.