Guide: common property
Common property in Abu Dhabi: developer, manager and owners’ committee roles
In a building or community with common parts, someone holds them, someone runs them and someone keeps watch over how they are run. Abu Dhabi's 2025 amendments and implementing decisions set those roles out separately. This guide maps who does what as a jointly owned development passes from the developer into common-property management, so that the developer, the approved management company and the owners' committee are not treated as interchangeable.
Common property as a development handover question
Common parts are the parts of a jointly owned property that serve more than one unit and are set out in its floor plan or community plan: structure, lobbies, stairs and lifts, main plant and services, shared amenities and similar elements. Administrative Decision No. (25) of 2025 lists them and distinguishes them from the common facilities of a wider master community, such as streets, parks and public parking.
The developer delivers these parts with the units, and the arrangements for running them begin before the first owner takes possession. Choices made in the design and delivery brief, such as where plant sits and how shared services are arranged, become the management company's working conditions and the cost base that service fees later cover. That makes common property a handover question as much as an operational one, and it belongs alongside the physical decisions covered under commercial building development.
The legal vocabulary changed in 2025. Law No. 2 of 2025 replaced the term owners' association with owners' committee throughout Law No. 3 of 2015 and abolished the association's board and director. Guidance written before then can describe bodies and procedures that no longer apply.
The developer and approved management company
Article 65 of Law No. 3 of 2015, as replaced by Law No. 2 of 2025, has the Department approve specialised companies so that the developer can select one of them to manage, operate, maintain and repair the common parts and service facilities under an agreement with the developer. Administrative Decision No. (25) of 2025 puts the rule in operational terms: the developer selects a management company accredited by the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) under an appointment agreement, and owners' committees exercise the powers the law gives them.
Article 18 of the decision sets out the developer's obligations towards unit owners and the owners' committee, including keeping the required books and records and appointing a specialised company to manage, operate and maintain the common parts and service facilities. In a master community, the master developer appoints a specialised company for the common facilities. The decision also allows the Chairman of the Department of Municipalities and Transport to designate projects in which the developer oversees management through an approved company, and the committee there exercises only the powers the Chairman assigns.
So the approved management company is appointed by the developer, choosing from companies approved by ADREC. The owners' committee may propose or advise on candidates, but it does not make the appointment. The developer must also submit the appointment agreement, and any renewal or amendment, to ADREC for approval.
The owners’ committee’s defined functions
The amended law defines the owners' committee by reference to the management and operation of the common parts, but its powers are listed, and they are powers of oversight rather than management. Under Article 10 of the Owners' Committees Bylaws adopted by Administrative Decision No. (26) of 2025, which follows the amended Article 64 of the law, the committee may propose or advise the developer on candidate management companies from ADREC's approved list; review the annual maintenance budgets prepared by the developer, request related financial reports and make recommendations to ADREC; monitor the management company's performance and raise recommendations with the company, the developer and ADREC; represent owners and occupants on complaints and suggestions, escalating unresolved ones to ADREC; request that the developer be required to replace a management company for negligence or poor service; report structural defects or damage needing urgent repair; and coordinate with the management company on safety, environment and security.
Two limits matter for anyone drafting handover documents. On budgets, the committee reviews and recommends without intervening directly in their preparation, approval or audit. And the bylaws prohibit the committee from intervening in, or performing, any duty not legally assigned to it. So the committee does not manage the property directly: it is not the property manager, and it does not prepare, approve or audit the budget.
Membership is defined too. Under Article 3 of the bylaws, members must be owners residing in the jointly owned property and meet further conditions, and the developer is not entitled to membership even where it still owns unsold units. Under Article 7, ADREC approves the elected members before the results are announced.
A role map for handover documents
Handover documents are clearer when each role is written down on its own. Three questions keep ownership, management and oversight apart.
Ownership: who holds the common parts?
Unit owners hold an undivided share of the common parts in proportion to each unit's contribution percentage, and the developer holds the share attached to units it has not yet sold. The registered plans and management regulations form part of each unit's title documents, and the common parts cannot be sold, mortgaged or encumbered.
Management: who runs them, and on what terms?
The management company appointed by the developer manages, operates, maintains and repairs the common parts under its appointment agreement, collects the approved service fees and reports periodically to ADREC. Its scope, term and fee belong in the agreement that ADREC approves.
Oversight: who watches, and through which channel?
The owners' committee reviews, monitors, represents and escalates within the functions listed in the bylaws. ADREC approves the committee and its members and oversees how committees work with the developer and the management company.
Questions to clarify before operational handover
The questions below are for the developer's team, its advisers and the appointed management company to settle before the first units are handed over. They frame the conversation; they do not replace legal advice on a particular project.
Common-property arrangements belong in the design brief from the outset, alongside the use and operating decisions covered under building development, because what the management company inherits is what the project team designed and built.
- Which registered plans define the common parts and any common facilities, and do they match the building as built?
- Which ADREC-approved management company will be appointed, on what scope and term, and has the appointment agreement been submitted for approval?
- Who prepares the first annual maintenance budget, and what information will owners and, later, the committee receive with it?
- Which books, records and building information pass from the developer and its contractors to the management company?
- Has the project been designated for developer-overseen management, and if so, which powers will the committee have?
- Once a committee is formed, through which channel will it raise recommendations and complaints with the management company, the developer and ADREC?
Planning a building with shared parts?
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