Guide · updated 31.07.2026 · 12 min read · Lucent Legal team

Power of Attorney in Dubai: Cost, Where to Get One, and Using It Back Home — 2026

If you're searching "power of attorney Dubai cost," you're likely in one of two situations: closing a property deal and don't want to sit in a notary queue in person, or you need someone back home to handle your affairs while you're in the Emirates. It's one document with wildly different procedures and prices depending on what it's for and which country it needs to work in. Below: the types of POA, where to get one in Dubai, the Arabic translation requirement, and — separately — how to make a POA that will actually hold up back in your home country.

Types of POA: general vs special

A general POA gives broad powers — managing bank accounts, property, a business, or representing you in court and with government bodies. A special POA (also called specific POA) is limited to one named action: sell one specific apartment, collect one specific document, represent you in one specific case.

For property deals, the choice has effectively been made for you: since 2026 the Dubai Land Department accepts only a special POA that names the Title Deed number and describes the specific transaction, valid for no more than two years. A general POA will not get a property sale through DLD.

Where to get a POA in Dubai: Dubai Courts notary

The baseline, cheapest option is a government notary (Public Notary) under Dubai Courts. It runs in two formats:

1. In person — at a Dubai Courts notary office, with your passport and Emirates ID (or the equivalent for a non-resident).
2. Online via e-Notary — a service run under Dubai Courts where the notarization happens over video call with OTP confirmation through UAE Pass; the resulting document is issued digitally and carries the same legal weight as an in-person notarization.

The official notary fee schedule is set by UAE Cabinet Resolution No. 19 of 2024: from AED 100 up to a cap of AED 15,000 per document, and for documents valued at AED 100,000 or more, 0.5% of the transaction value within that same cap. In practice, for a standard personal POA, sources put the ballpark at around AED 100–300 for a government-notary signature; agencies offering a full "turnkey" package (drafting, translation, notarization) charge noticeably more — from AED 500 up to AED 1,000–1,200 for a corporate POA. Sources disagree meaningfully here — confirm the exact fee for your case with the notary or a lawyer before you file.

Private notaries — paying for speed and convenience

Alongside Dubai Courts, Dubai has private notaries — independent specialists licensed by the UAE Ministry of Justice. Their official fee for the POA itself is the same as at a government notary, but a private notary charges a service premium: extended hours, a visit to your location, consultation, and generally faster turnaround with no queue. For time-sensitive deals (closing a property transaction on a tight deadline, for example), this can add another AED 100–300 or more, depending on the office.

Arabic translation is mandatory

The official language of UAE courts, the DLD, and government departments is Arabic. If your POA is drafted in English or another language, courts, the Land Department, and most authorities require an official translation — and not just any translation, but one done by a translator accredited by the UAE Ministry of Justice (a legal/certified translator). A DIY translation or one from an unaccredited agency won't be accepted. For property deals through the DLD, the document is usually required in a bilingual format (Arabic/English) — an English-only version isn't accepted by the department.

This is the same logic that applies to document legalisation and to the apostille question: apostille simply doesn't work in the UAE (it isn't a Hague Convention member), so a POA moving between the UAE and another country always goes through the chain of notary → MOFA attestation → the destination country's consulate — with no apostille step at any stage.

Using a UAE power of attorney back in your home country

If the POA needs to let someone back home handle your affairs — sell a property, collect documents, represent you in court — you generally have two routes, and they differ sharply in time, cost, and the final status of the document.

Route 1 — your home country's consulate in Dubai. Many consulates in Dubai issue powers of attorney directly, under their own consular fee schedule. The advantage: a consular POA is an act of your own country's consul, so it needs no further legalisation to be used back home — it's valid immediately. Turnaround and fees vary by country and by what the POA covers, so check with your specific consulate. (The Russian version of this guide has the exact figures and process for the Russian consulate in Dubai, since that route is well documented: roughly $40–70 depending on the type of POA, with processing in about 5 business days.)

Route 2 — a local UAE notary plus consular legalisation. The POA is notarized at Dubai Courts or a private notary as described above, then goes through MOFA attestation (the UAE foreign ministry — roughly AED 2,000 for a commercial-type document like a POA) and then legalisation at your home country's consulate in the UAE. This route is longer (MOFA attestation alone can take days to a couple of weeks, plus a consulate appointment) and almost always costs more in total than going straight to the consulate — but it's sometimes unavoidable if you need the POA to work in both the UAE and your home country at once, in English/Arabic.

How to revoke a power of attorney

A POA can be revoked at any time while the person who granted it remains legally competent. The process is drafting and notarizing a revocation notice (sometimes called an Acknowledgement of Cancellation) at the same type of notary that issued the original POA, then notifying everyone who relied on it — the bank, the DLD, the person holding the POA. The fee for notarizing a revocation is usually lower than for the original POA — sources put it around AED 100–200 for certifying the signature on the notice. If the POA has already been presented to a specific institution (a bank, the Land Department), notify that institution directly as well — revoking it at the notary doesn't automatically block a copy that's already been submitted somewhere.

Watch out: fake powers of attorney as an asset-grab scheme

According to media reports, 2026 has seen a rise in cases where a forged or fraudulently obtained power of attorney is used as a tool to seize someone else's assets in the UAE — property owners and holders of large bank balances are the most common targets. What makes the scheme dangerous is that, from a bank or broker's point of view, the transaction looks routine: the POA has passed formal notarization and legalisation, and without prior information about the victim, spotting a forgery on the spot is close to impossible.

The practical takeaway: if you didn't personally sign a power of attorney but learn one exists in your name, don't wait for it to be used in a transaction. Contact your bank to freeze activity on the account, and go to the police in parallel. For where to report fraud in the UAE and what you can realistically recover, see the guide on reporting fraud in Dubai.

When to bring in a lawyer

A POA for collecting a certificate or a one-off routine errand is something plenty of people handle themselves in a single visit to a notary. A lawyer is worth it if the POA grants control over property or a large sum of money, if you need the document to work in two jurisdictions at once, if you're revoking a previously issued POA in a hurry over suspected fraud, or if the English and Arabic wording needs to match exactly without losing legal meaning. The cost of a mistake here isn't a lost day — it's a stranger gaining access to your assets.

This material is for information only and is not legal advice. UAE law changes — a lawyer will assess how it applies to your situation.