Part III — The Transaction

The Brokerage Business & Your Legal Duties

What a registered broker actually is, the brokers register and BRN, the requirement that developers use certified brokers, and the duties you owe your client and the market.

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You now know the regulators (Part I) and the register (Part II). This chapter puts you — the broker — into the legal picture. In Dubai, brokerage is a licensed, registered, examined profession, and the law repeatedly insists that only a certified broker may act.

The brokers register and your BRN

Recall Chapter 4: one of DLD’s statutory jobs is to “prescribe rules for regulating and keeping the real estate brokers register” (Law No. 7 of 2006, Art. 6(6)). That register is maintained under Bylaw No. 85 of 2006, and RERA administers it. When you qualify, you are entered on it and issued a Broker Registration Number (BRN) and card through the DLD Trakheesi system.

The practical eligibility and licensing path (from Chapter 1, now in context):

1. Be 21+, a UAE resident with an Emirates ID, employed by a firm holding a valid real estate trade licence, with a good-conduct certificate. No degree required.
2. Complete the Certified Training for Real Estate Brokers (CTRB) through DREI.
3. Pass the RERA exam (~70 MCQs, 2 hours, ~70% pass, AED 772.50, retakes allowed).
4. Receive your BRN card, renewed annually with continuing-education requirements.

Agent vs principal — the hat you wear

A broker is fundamentally an agent: you arrange and mediate a transaction between a buyer and a seller (or landlord and tenant); you are not a party to the sale and you do not take title. Your authority comes from a written agency agreement with your client (the listing or representation agreement — the “Form A / Form B” of the next chapter). This has three consequences that the exam tests as duties:

• You act within the authority your client actually gave you — you cannot bind them beyond it.
• You are paid a commission for successfully introducing a ready, willing and able counterparty — not for owning risk in the asset.
• You owe your client loyalty, disclosure and honest dealing, and you owe the market truthful advertising and conduct (Part VI).

The core duties of a broker

While the detailed code of conduct sits in RERA’s bylaws (Part VI), the duties that flow from the legislation you have already seen are:

Duty	Where it comes from
Act only when registered/certified (valid BRN)	Bylaw 85/2006; Law 13/2008, Arts. 9–10
Work under a written, registered agreement	Law 13/2008, Art. 9 (developer contracts registered with DLD)
Only market approved projects	Law 13/2008, Art. 10 (unapproved = void)
Advertise only with permission (Trakheesi permit; developer off-plan ads need DLD authorisation)	Law 8/2007, Art. 5; RERA advertising monitoring (Law 16/2007, Art. 5(9))
Deal honestly, disclose material facts, avoid misrepresentation	RERA code of conduct (Part VI)
Keep client money and documents properly (use the trustee for transfers)	Registration framework, Law 7/2006

Why the profession is licensed at all

Come back to the theme from Chapter 1: the entire system exists to protect investor confidence. An unlicensed, untrained intermediary who mis-states who can own what, advertises a project that does not exist, or pockets a deposit destroys that confidence. Licensing, the exam, the BRN and the conduct rules are the market’s immune system — and you are being certified as part of it.