The call that should never happen
The deal is signed. Form F is in the system. The buyer’s cheque is with the trustee. Everyone is shaking hands and somebody is already posting on social media about a record quarter.
Then comes the call.
“We discussed 60/40. You said 50/50. I have the WhatsApp messages to prove it.”
No written split agreement. Two agents, two agencies, two versions of the same conversation. The commission sits with one brokerage. The other is waiting. And now the client has already paid — which means neither side has any remaining leverage to force resolution quickly. What follows is weeks of back-and-forth, sometimes a complaint filed with DLD, sometimes a relationship permanently damaged, and sometimes money that simply never arrives.
This situation plays out across Dubai’s secondary market on a regular basis. It is not the result of bad faith in most cases. It is the result of a shared deal that moved fast, where two agents trusted a conversation instead of a document. Understanding why the best negotiators avoid this entirely — by writing things down first, not as an afterthought — is what this article is about.
How a shared deal actually works in Dubai
Dubai’s secondary market has no central exclusive listing system. When multiple agents are involved in a single listing, the commission is typically split among them. That is simply the structure of the market. A listing agent has a signed Form A from the seller. A buyer’s agent has a client who wants that property. Both want the deal done. So they co-broke.
When two brokers collaborate on a deal, the commission structure must be agreed upon in advance. Without a clear agent-to-agent agreement, many agents end up in costly disputes or losing their commission entirely.
The split itself has no statutory formula. In Dubai, there is no official law dictating the exact split for agent-to-agent commissions, but commonly accepted standards include a 50/50 split for sale transactions, a 50/50 split for rental transactions (sometimes negotiable depending on the effort involved), and a smaller split offered by the listing agent — such as 60/40 — when they hold exclusive rights.
None of those numbers are law. They are custom. Which means they have to be agreed. And agreement only becomes enforceable when it is in writing.
The commission itself has a clear baseline: real estate agent commission in Dubai is 2% of the property purchase price, regulated as custom by RERA. On an AED 2 million apartment, at 2% plus 5% VAT, the total commission payable is AED 42,000. That is not a trivial sum to leave unprotected by a verbal handshake.
On the rental side, the mechanics are slightly different. In most Dubai leases, the tenant pays a commission of around 5% of the annual rent. This is normally paid once, at the time of signing the tenancy contract and issuing rental cheques, often together with Ejari registration. When two agents are involved — one representing the landlord, one the tenant — the same problem applies: if the split was agreed by phone and not in writing, one of them is exposed.
Why the paperwork is your proof, not your protection
There is a common misunderstanding among newer agents in Dubai: they think that RERA forms protect them automatically, as long as a deal closes. They do not. The forms protect the relationship between agent and client. The agent-to-agent split is a separate arrangement, governed by a separate document.
RERA expects all commission arrangements to be documented in the appropriate form. If a commission dispute arises, the relevant dispute resolution body handles the case. Having a written agreement is essential to win any dispute.
Dubai property law recognises Form F as a binding agreement that demonstrates mutual intent and commitment. Authorities such as RERA or local courts rely almost entirely on the written terms in the document when a dispute arises. Verbal promises or side explanations carry very little weight once signatures appear on the page. Any terms not included in the form are generally difficult to enforce later, because the contract serves as the primary evidence in any dispute resolution process.
That principle — what is not written does not exist — applies just as firmly to the split between two agencies as it does to the agreement between buyer and seller. A verbal agreement that commission will be X percentage holds very little weight if a dispute arises, and disputes over commission are not uncommon in a market where transaction values are high.
UAE courts generally uphold what is written in the contract — not verbal promises. To stay protected, define the scope in precise terms, document all approved variations, and ensure both parties sign off.
The split agreement is therefore not a bureaucratic extra. It is the only instrument that turns a shared understanding into a shared obligation.
The negotiation moment most agents waste
Here is where strategy and paperwork intersect, and where most agents misread the timing.
The split is easiest to agree before the deal is under momentum. At the point when the listing agent has a property and the buyer’s agent has a client, both need each other. Neither has the upper hand. That is the cleanest possible moment to negotiate, because both agents have equal incentive to close and equal reason to be fair.
Once Form F is signed, the dynamic shifts. Agent commission typically becomes legally due upon Form F signing. The client has committed. The buyer has handed over a 10% deposit cheque. The deal is real. At that point, the listing agent — who holds the client relationship, the Form A, and the commission invoice — has structural leverage over the co-broke agent. The co-broke agent has already delivered their value: the buyer. If the split was not documented beforehand, asking for it now is negotiating from weakness.
Negotiating verbally is not enough. You should always secure the commission split with a written agreement.
The best negotiators in Dubai’s market understand that the moment to write things down is the moment when both agents are still equal — before the client pays anything, before Form F is signed, before the deal enters the system. Not after.
This is not a defensive move. It is a positioning move. The agent who brings up documentation early signals competence, not distrust. It says: “I do this properly.” Agents who resist that framing — who treat a written split as an accusation — are the agents who create disputes. An experienced co-broke counterpart will recognise the request as professional; if they push back on it, that tells you something important about how they intend to behave when the money arrives.
What the split agreement needs to contain
A split agreement between two agencies does not need to be a lengthy document. But it needs to be precise. Vague language — “we’ll split it fairly,” “standard 50/50 as discussed” — is nearly as useless as no document at all, because it creates a second argument about interpretation.
At minimum, the written split agreement should cover:
- The gross commission amount or the percentage being split, stated as a number — not a reference to “the usual rate”
- The exact percentage each agency receives — 50/50, 60/40, or whatever was negotiated — stated explicitly
- Whether VAT is included or excluded in the split calculation. Since the introduction of VAT in the UAE in January 2018, a 5% Value Added Tax applies to real estate brokerage services. VAT is charged on the commission amount, not the property price. If two agencies are splitting a commission and one is VAT-registered while the other is not, the invoice arithmetic becomes complicated unless it is sorted out in advance.
- The trigger event for payment — specifically, which step in the transaction triggers the obligation to pay the other agency their share. Is it Form F signing? Is it DLD transfer? Is it when the client’s cheque clears? Under standard RERA practice, commission is payable only upon successful transfer. If both agencies agree that is the trigger, write it down. If they agree on something different, write that down instead.
- The name of the party responsible for making the payment — typically the agency holding the commission invoice collects from the client and then pays the co-broker. This should not be left to assumption.
- Both agency names, ORN numbers, and the signatures of authorised representatives — not just the individual agents, but a signature that can bind the brokerage.
Every split should be spelled out in writing to avoid disputes. The checklist above is what “spelled out” means in practice.
The off-plan dimension
Off-plan deals carry their own timing complexity. For off-plan, buyers usually pay no commission; the developer pays the broker after the Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) is executed and payment milestones are met.
This means the commission timeline is not the same as on a secondary market sale. The agent may wait months — sometimes longer, depending on the developer’s payment schedule — for funds to arrive. If a co-broke agent introduced the buyer and the split was never formalised, they are now waiting on a timeline they cannot control, from a brokerage that received the funds at a point they may not have been watching closely.
Off-plan projects need a Trakheesi permit. Agents marketing off-plan must be working under a valid permit, and the split arrangement between the introducing agent and the permit-holding agency needs to be documented at the point the buyer is introduced — not when the developer eventually pays out.
The off-plan dynamic also means the “write it down first” principle has an additional importance: the developer’s payment may arrive months after the client has moved on, the deal has faded from memory, and the relationship between the two agents has changed. A document written at the point of introduction is the only reliable anchor.
The rental deal: faster cycle, same risk
Rentals move quickly. A tenant signs, hands over post-dated cheques, pays the agency fee, and is gone within days. The Ejari is registered. The landlord and tenant have their copies. The deal is done.
But if two agents were involved — one representing the landlord, one finding the tenant — and the split was agreed verbally on the phone while both were driving between viewings, the same risk exists. The commission is paid to one brokerage. The other needs to be paid by that brokerage. And if neither has a signed split agreement, the follow-up is a favour, not an obligation.
Commission on a residential rental is normally paid once, at the time of signing the tenancy contract and issuing rental cheques. If the landlord has a separate agreement for marketing or full property management, their fee is generally paid after the lease is signed and the tenant’s cheques are handed over.
That moment — when the tenant cheques are handed over — is the pressure point. The money is in the room. Everything crystallises. If the split agreement was signed before that moment, the co-broke agent has a clear, documented claim. If not, they are asking for something after the fact.
Commission disputes are fact-specific — who introduced whom, what was signed, what was paid. In a rental dispute, “who introduced whom” is easy to establish. “What was signed” is where most agents lose.
Why one party gets paid and the other waits
The structural problem in Dubai’s co-broke market is the payment pathway. The client pays one brokerage — the listing agent’s agency, typically. That brokerage then owes the co-broke agent’s agency their share. But there is no client holding both parties accountable simultaneously, because the client’s obligation is complete the moment they pay their invoice.
This is where disputes incubate. The listing brokerage has the cash. The co-broke agent has already delivered their service. The only thing standing between the co-broke agent and their money is the listing brokerage’s willingness to honour an agreement — and that willingness is only legally enforceable if the agreement is in writing.
Delayed or incomplete payments are among the biggest deal-breakers in the UAE, often caused by unclear milestones or loosely defined billing terms. When invoices stall, so does progress — creating a ripple effect across the project.
The solution is not to be suspicious of co-broke counterparts. Most Dubai agencies operate in good faith. The solution is to remove the conditions under which disputes can form. A signed split agreement, agreed before the client pays, means the listing brokerage is not making a discretionary decision to pay — they are fulfilling a documented obligation. That changes the psychology of the situation entirely.
Written evidence is usually much stronger than verbal agreements. Emails, WhatsApp messages, invoices, payment records, and witness evidence may help prove the agreement and breach. But WhatsApp messages and email threads are reconstructed after the fact, read selectively, and argued over. A signed document signed by both brokerage representatives is none of those things.
The negotiator’s real advantage: certainty
There is a negotiation principle embedded in everything above that goes beyond commission protection. It is this: the agent who creates certainty for others is the agent others want to work with.
In a market without exclusive mandates, your reputation for clean, straightforward co-broke deals is a competitive asset. Listing agents choose who to co-broke with. They will share listings more readily with agents who they know will document the deal properly, not create drama at the end. Shared listings can sometimes complicate the transaction, so clear agreements should be in place from the start. Agents who create clear agreements are the ones who get called first.
The best negotiators understand that documentation is not a defensive act. It is a signal of confidence. They are not afraid of what the document says, because they negotiated fair terms before putting pen to paper. The agent who refuses to write things down — or who defers it, or who says “we’ll sort it out when it closes” — is not being flexible. They are creating future ambiguity, and ambiguity always benefits the party holding the money.
Agents are required under RERA rules to disclose their commission arrangement to all parties. Transparency is an obligation, not an option. Writing down the split is simply what transparency looks like between two agencies working the same deal.
When every party gets paid at once
The cleanest version of a co-broke deal is one where neither agent has to wait for the other agency to decide to pay them. Not because there is distrust — but because waiting, by its nature, creates the conditions for problems. Delays accumulate explanations. Explanations become disputes. Disputes consume time that should be spent closing the next deal.
The principle worth building toward is this: the split is agreed in writing before the deal enters the system, the trigger event is defined precisely, and when the client pays, both agencies receive their share from that same moment — not one now, and the other whenever.
This is not an idealistic standard. It is a process discipline. The agents who operate this way do not find themselves on the phone after Form F is filed arguing about a conversation that happened in a car three weeks ago. They spend that time elsewhere.
Relying on verbal agreements, not discussing the commission split until late in the process, assuming a 50/50 split without confirmation, and working with agents who refuse to sign a written agreement — these are the practices that cost agents their commission.
The alternative is not complicated: raise the split conversation early, write the number down, get two signatures, and define exactly when and how each agency gets paid. Do it before the client pays anything. Do it while both agents still need each other equally. Do it first.
That is what the best negotiators do. Not because they distrust the market. Because they understand that a market without exclusive mandates, with post-dated cheques, with off-plan payment timelines, and with commissions landing at one brokerage before flowing to another, is a market where the written word is the only anchor that holds.
Everything else moves.
