“Having picked up that experience from going to Rera [Real Estate Regulatory Agency] a number of times and having different landlords who wanted to do different things, I came upon the idea that you could build something that will help people, that will be able to offer advice,” says Mr Young.

“From there I initially sketched out the idea and, over time, it has developed and evolved into what we have today.”

That is propertyrights.ae, a website designed to advise tenants and landlords in Dubai on their legal rights for a Dh100 fee.

Customers fill in a form, giving details such as their email address and information about their tenancy contract. Mr Young designed the process behind the system, which is fully automated.

“As soon as their details are in, it sits there on our database. I do nothing with those details unless they tell me something is incorrect – in which case I will go in and change it,” he says.

If tenants sign up when they take out their residency contract, they receive an email six months later setting out the maximum rent increase and maximum rent chargeable, as per Rera calculations.

With four months left on the contract they will receive another email explaining that they have 30 days left to be told of any rental increases or changes to the contract.

Once that period expires, they have 90 days left on their contract and it is no longer legal for a landlord to change any part of the contract, including the rental cost.

“A lot of people don’t know that and they don’t understand exactly how the rule works because there are all sorts of rules that have changed over the years that people get confused with. If someone goes looking for that information it takes time to find,” says Mr Young.

“If you want to find out all the relevant information with the laws there is a 30-page document that you can read. Our way of sending it out has that narrowed down to a page or a page and a half. The emails are timed to reach people, so they are aware of what can happen before they need to be.”


British expat’s Dubai rental woes turn him from oil broker to property guru | The National