Desk research against primary sources. Figures are traced to the issuing UAE authority and linked on the page.
Article 879 sets the default when your contract is silent, but most Dubai tenancy contracts override it for small items by drawing an explicit line — usually the AED 500–1,000 band — below which the tenant pays and above which the landlord does. Read your own contract’s maintenance clause before assuming the AED 500–1,000 convention applies, because a landlord who wrote a different figure into the lease is not bound by the Dubai norm.
Documentation is what turns a maintenance dispute into something the Rental Dispute Centre can act on: a written request with a date, sent to the landlord, is evidence that they were asked and failed to respond, while a verbal complaint leaves nothing to file. If a landlord refuses a genuine major repair under Article 879, filing at RDC for an order to repair is generally faster than withholding rent, which can itself become grounds for a dispute against you.