Desk research against primary sources. Figures are traced to the issuing UAE authority and linked on the page.
Federal Decree-Law 9 of 2021 removed unmarried status as a legal ground, but it did not remove landlords’ or building managers’ ability to be uninformed about that, which is why the practical protection often comes from being able to name the decree rather than from the decree enforcing itself. Citing Federal Decree-Law 9 of 2021 to a landlord or manager who is threatening eviction over marital status is usually enough to end the conversation.
The same reform also decriminalised alcohol consumption in private homes, so the two changes travel together conceptually even though they cover different conduct — cohabitation as a status, drinking as an activity — both now outside the reach of the older rules. Older leases or house rules written before 2021 sometimes still contain marital-status clauses; those clauses are unenforceable under the decree even if nobody has updated the paperwork.