In short: A Power of Attorney (POA) is a notarised legal document in which one person, the principal, authorises another person, the agent, to act on their behalf within a defined scope. In the UAE a POA only takes legal effect once it is notarised by a Public Notary or a licensed Private Notary, and it is governed by the Civil Transactions Law and the Notary Profession Law.
Legal notice
The information in this article is general and educational in nature and does not constitute legal advice. Requirements vary according to the type of power of attorney, the emirate, the nationality of the parties and the authority receiving the document. Final acceptance of any notarised document rests with the authority to which it is submitted. This guide reflects the legal position as at the last review date shown above; UAE legislation is subject to amendment.
What Is a Power of Attorney (POA)?
A Power of Attorney is a written authorisation, notarised before a competent notary, by which one party grants another the right to carry out specific legal, financial or administrative acts in their name. It does not transfer ownership, and it does not create new rights — it transfers the ability to exercise rights the principal already holds.
The document matters most when personal attendance is impossible or impractical: you are outside the country, you are unable to attend court in person, or a transaction requires a specialist to appear before a government department on your behalf. From our day-to-day casework as a licensed private notary in Dubai, the single most common reason a client needs a POA is not convenience but distance — a property sale, a company amendment or a court hearing that cannot wait for the principal to fly back.
The two parties to a POA
The original holder of the right. Defines the scope of authority, must have full legal capacity at the moment of signing, and may amend or revoke the POA at any time through the proper procedure.
The person receiving the authority. May act only within the powers expressly granted, and bears personal legal responsibility for any act that exceeds them.
The distinction is not academic. Where an agent acts outside the written scope, the transaction can be challenged and the agent, not the principal, may carry the liability. We cover the practical division of responsibility in detail in our guide to the roles of the agent and the principal in a UAE power of attorney, and the boundaries of delegated authority in what a power of attorney can and cannot do.
The Legal Framework Governing Powers of Attorney in the UAE
Two separate bodies of law apply to every UAE power of attorney: one governs the substance of the agency relationship, and one governs the form in which it must be executed to be recognised.
Important 2026 update
Federal Law No. 5 of 1985 (the 1985 Civil Code), which governed agency for four decades, was repealed with effect from 1 June 2026 and replaced by the new Civil Transactions Law issued under Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025. Many online guides still cite the 1985 articles as current law. As a general transitional rule, contracts concluded before 1 June 2026 continue to be governed by the former code, while instruments executed on or after that date fall under the new law. If you hold a POA issued before June 2026, have its wording reviewed rather than assuming it still reads the same way to a receiving authority.
1. The substantive law: the Civil Transactions Law
Agency — the relationship the POA creates — is a civil law concept. It determines who may grant authority, what may be delegated, how the agent’s obligations are defined, and how the relationship comes to an end. Under the former 1985 Civil Code these provisions sat at Articles 924 onwards; they are now recodified in the Civil Transactions Law issued by Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025, in force since 1 June 2026.
2. The formal law: the Notary Profession Law
A POA that is merely written and signed has no standing before a UAE government department, court, bank or land department. It must be notarised. The notarial profession is regulated federally by Federal Decree-Law No. 20 of 2022 on Regulating the Notary Profession, which repealed and replaced Federal Law No. 4 of 2013 and sets out the powers of both the Public Notary and the licensed Private Notary.
In Dubai, the Private Notary is additionally regulated by Dubai Law No. (4) of 2013 Concerning Notaries Public in the Emirate of Dubai, as amended by Dubai Law No. (26) of 2021 — the amendment that formally introduced the electronic notary public into the emirate’s framework. This is the legal basis on which a licensed private notary such as ourselves is able to notarise a POA outside a government counter, including remotely. If you want the mechanics rather than the statute, see our guide on e-notarisation in the UAE.
General vs Special Power of Attorney: Which One Do You Need?
This is the decision that causes the most trouble later. A general POA is broader and more convenient; a special POA is narrower and far safer. In practice, most UAE authorities and banks now prefer — and some require — a special POA that names the exact transaction.
| Point of comparison | General POA | Special POA |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of authority | Broad; covers a category of acts | Limited to named acts or a named asset |
| Typical use | Ongoing representation, long absence abroad | One property sale, one court case, one licence renewal |
| Risk exposure | Higher — harder to reverse an executed act | Lower — authority ends with the task |
| Acceptance by authorities | Often refused for high-value acts such as property disposal | Generally preferred; required by some departments |
| Drafting effort | Shorter, but ambiguity is more costly | Longer; must describe the asset and the act precisely |
A common misunderstanding is that a general POA covers everything. It does not. Acts of disposal — selling property, transferring shares, mortgaging an asset — usually require express and specific wording even inside a general POA, and a receiving authority that cannot find that wording will reject the document. Our detailed comparison sits at do I need a general or special power of attorney in the UAE, and the full taxonomy is set out in types of power of attorney in the UAE.
When Do You Need a Power of Attorney in the UAE?
A POA is not one document with one use. In practice, it is a family of instruments, each drafted around a different transaction and each with its own wording requirements.
Selling, buying, transferring or managing property while abroad. See POA to sell property and property management POA.
Company formation, licence renewal, share transfer and liquidation. See corporate POA and POA for share transfer.
Appointing a representative to file, defend or follow a case. See litigation POA and POA for a court case.
Buying, selling, registering or transferring a vehicle. See vehicle power of attorney.
Account operation within stated limits and dealings with the FTA. See banking POA and POA for tax matters.
Inheritance procedures and child travel authorisation. See inheritance POA and child travel consent.
Not every authority can be delegated. Certain acts are personal by nature and cannot be exercised by an agent, and some documents are refused where the wording attempts to delegate something the law reserves to the person themselves. If your situation is unusual, check individual powers of attorney in the UAE before drafting.
Conditions for a Valid Power of Attorney in the UAE
A POA fails for one of three reasons: the parties, the wording, or the form. All three have to hold.
Capacity. The principal must hold full legal capacity at the moment of signing. A POA signed by a person who has lost capacity is not curable after the fact.
Precision. Both parties must be identified by full name and identity document, and the powers described specifically enough that a third party can read them without interpretation. Ambiguity is resolved against the agent, which usually means rejection at the counter.
Form. Notarisation before a Public Notary or licensed Private Notary, or, for a POA executed abroad, the full legalisation chain described further below.
On duration: a UAE POA generally remains in force until it is revoked or until an expiry date stated on its face, and it terminates automatically on the death or loss of capacity of the principal. Some receiving authorities apply their own internal freshness rule and will ask for a recently issued document even where the POA has not expired. The detail is in power of attorney validity conditions in the UAE and the effect of death of the principal or agent.
The Arabic Language Requirement Most Guides Leave Out
Arabic is the official language of the UAE courts and notarial system. A power of attorney submitted for notarisation must be in Arabic; where the principal does not read Arabic, the document is prepared as a bilingual Arabic–English instrument so that the signatory understands what they are signing and the Arabic text stands as the operative version.
This matters in two practical ways. First, an English-only draft brought from abroad cannot simply be stamped — it needs certified legal translation before it can be notarised. Second, translation quality is a legal risk, not an administrative one: a mistranslated power such as manage where the intent was sell changes the scope of the authority granted. We deal with this daily, and it is the most frequent cause of a document being sent back for redrafting rather than rejected outright.
Practical tip
Have the Arabic drafted first and the English rendered from it — not the other way round. The Arabic is what the notary registers and what the receiving authority reads. See certified legal Arabic translation in the UAE.
How to Notarise a Power of Attorney in the UAE: Step by Step
The process below applies where the principal is inside the UAE. If you are abroad, skip ahead to the following section.
Define the exact scope. Identify the specific transaction, the asset or file it relates to, and any financial or time limit you want applied. This is the step that determines whether the document is accepted later.
Draft in Arabic (or bilingual). The POA is prepared in the legal wording the notarial register and the receiving authority expect. Generic templates downloaded online are the most common source of rejection.
Verify identity. Original Emirates ID and passport for the principal, and identification details for the agent. Identity verification is a mandatory notarial function, not a formality — see identity verification of principal and agent.
Sign before the notary. In person at the office, at your location through a mobile notary visit, or remotely by verified video session where the transaction and the receiving authority permit it.
Registration and issuance. The notary records the instrument in the official register, assigns it a serial number and issues the notarised POA with its official stamp and reference.
The full walkthrough, including the differences between the government counter route and the private notary route, is in how to notarise a power of attorney in the UAE and issuing a POA through the smart application.
Documents Required to Issue a Power of Attorney
The complete list by POA type is maintained at required documents for issuing any power of attorney in the UAE.
Send us the transaction and the authority it will be submitted to. We will confirm the correct type, the wording it requires and whether it can be signed remotely — before anything is drafted.
Issuing a UAE Power of Attorney From Outside the Country
If you are abroad, you have two routes, and choosing the wrong one costs weeks.
Route one — the UAE embassy or consulate. You attend the UAE mission in your country of residence, sign there, and the mission authenticates the document. It then requires attestation by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs on arrival before a local authority will act on it. This route is reliable but slow, and it depends entirely on the mission’s appointment availability. See issuing a POA through UAE consulates.
Route two — a POA drafted locally and legalised abroad. The document is prepared in the correct UAE wording, notarised in your country, then legalised through that country’s foreign ministry and the UAE mission, and finally attested by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The advantage is that the wording is correct from the start; the risk is that a locally drafted POA using foreign legal concepts may be refused by the UAE authority receiving it.
Whichever route you take, the practical guide is at how to issue a power of attorney from abroad.
Using a UAE Power of Attorney Outside the UAE
A POA notarised in the UAE is valid in the UAE. To be recognised abroad it must pass through a legalisation chain: attestation by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then endorsement by the embassy of the destination country, and in many cases certified translation into that country’s official language on arrival.
Requirements differ sharply by destination, and a document that satisfies one country will be refused by another. We maintain country-specific guides for Russia, Pakistan, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and European countries. The general framework is in international power of attorney, and the reasons documents get refused abroad are set out in problems of non-acceptance of powers of attorney abroad.
How Are Power of Attorney Notarisation Fees Determined?
Notarisation fees in the UAE are not set by the notary. They are fixed by Cabinet Resolution, in a published schedule covering transactions conducted by the Public Notary and the fees of the Private Notary. Two points follow from that, and both are worth knowing before you compare providers:
The base fee is the same everywhere. The prescribed fee for a given notarial transaction is set centrally, so the government portion does not change depending on which notary you use.
The private notary component is regulated too. Under the Cabinet Resolution, a private notary applies the prescribed fee and adds a defined professional-fee percentage on top of it — a fixed uplift set by the Cabinet, not a freely priced service charge.
What genuinely varies is scope: the type of POA, the amount of drafting and translation required, the number of certified copies, and whether attestation for use abroad is needed. For the current fee schedule, refer to the official Cabinet Resolution linked in the sources section below, and contact us for the scope applicable to your specific transaction.
How to Cancel a Power of Attorney in the UAE
A principal may revoke a POA at any time, but revocation is not effective simply because you have decided on it. Three things need to happen.
Register the revocation. A cancellation deed is executed and registered before the notary, referencing the original POA number and date.
Notify the agent formally. Verbal notice is not sufficient evidence. A registered legal notice creates a dated record that the agent’s authority ended — see legal notice for cancellation of a POA.
Notify every third party holding the POA. Banks, the land department, the free zone authority, the court file. A third party acting in good faith on a POA it was never told had been cancelled is the single largest source of post-revocation disputes.
The full procedure is at how to cancel a power of attorney.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Further reading: common drafting mistakes, misuse of a power of attorney and how to protect yourself, and the risks of not having a POA in place.
How Private Notary Dubai Assists
We are a licensed private notary operating in Dubai. We do not issue documents on behalf of the state — the notarial act is performed under the authority granted by the applicable notary legislation, and acceptance of the final document always rests with the authority receiving it. What we do is make the document correct before it reaches that authority:
Our full service page is power of attorney notarisation in Dubai, with remote options at e-notary Dubai and mobile notary Dubai.
A POA transfers the exercise of a right, never ownership of it.
Notarisation is what gives the document legal effect — an unnotarised POA is a private letter.
Requirements differ by emirate and by the authority receiving the document; confirm before drafting.
Legislation changes. The 2026 recodification of the Civil Transactions Law is a reminder to have older instruments reviewed rather than assumed still current.
Frequently Asked Questions About Powers of Attorney in the UAE
What does POA mean?
POA stands for Power of Attorney. It is a notarised document by which a principal authorises an agent to perform specified legal, financial or administrative acts on their behalf, within the scope written into the document.
Which law governs powers of attorney in the UAE?
Two apply together. The agency relationship falls under the Civil Transactions Law issued by Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025, in force since 1 June 2026, which replaced Federal Law No. 5 of 1985. The form and notarisation are governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 20 of 2022 on Regulating the Notary Profession, and in Dubai additionally by Dubai Law No. 4 of 2013 as amended by Dubai Law No. 26 of 2021.
Is a power of attorney valid without notarisation in the UAE?
No. A POA that has not been notarised by a Public Notary or a licensed Private Notary will not be accepted by government departments, courts, banks or land departments in the UAE.
What is the difference between a general and a special power of attorney?
A general POA grants broad authority across a category of acts. A special POA is limited to a named transaction or asset. Special POAs are safer and are preferred, and sometimes required, by UAE authorities for high-value acts such as property disposal.
Does a power of attorney have to be in Arabic?
Yes. Arabic is the official language of the UAE notarial system, so the POA must be in Arabic or prepared as a bilingual Arabic–English document, with the Arabic text operative. An English-only draft requires certified legal translation before it can be notarised.
Can I issue a UAE power of attorney while I am outside the country?
Yes. You can sign at a UAE embassy or consulate in your country of residence, or have the POA drafted in UAE wording, notarised locally and then legalised through the foreign ministry, the UAE mission and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Can a power of attorney be notarised remotely by video?
Remote notarisation is recognised within the UAE framework, and Dubai’s notary law was amended in 2021 to include the electronic notary public. Whether it is available for your document depends on the type of POA and on the authority that will receive it, so confirm before scheduling.
How long is a power of attorney valid in the UAE?
It remains valid until revoked, or until any expiry date written into it. Some receiving authorities apply their own internal rule and ask for a recently issued POA even when the document has not expired.
Does a power of attorney end when the principal dies?
Yes. A POA terminates automatically on the death of the principal or on their loss of legal capacity. Any act performed by the agent after that point is exposed to challenge.
How do I cancel a power of attorney?
Register a cancellation deed before the notary referencing the original POA, serve a formal legal notice on the agent, and notify every third party that holds a copy — banks, land department, free zone authority or court file.
Who sets power of attorney notarisation fees in the UAE?
The fees are fixed by Cabinet Resolution, which sets both the prescribed fees for transactions conducted by the Public Notary and the professional-fee component applicable to the Private Notary. The notary does not set the base fee.
Can my agent do anything not written in the power of attorney?
No. The agent’s authority is limited to what the document expressly states. Acting beyond it exposes the agent to personal liability and leaves the transaction open to challenge by the principal or a third party.
Will my UAE power of attorney be accepted in my home country?
Not automatically. It must be attested by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and endorsed by the embassy of the destination country, and most countries also require certified translation on arrival. Requirements differ significantly by destination.
Do I need a lawyer to draft a power of attorney?
Not necessarily, but the wording determines whether the document is accepted or refused. Most rejections we see are drafting problems rather than legal ones — scope that is too vague, an asset that is not properly identified, or a power the receiving authority requires to be stated expressly.
Abdul Hamid Mohammed — Legal Consultant
Legally reviewed by Dr. Mohamed Shehata, Legal Consultant
Abdul Hamid is a legal consultant with extensive experience in providing legal advice in the United Arab Emirates. His expertise focuses on legal drafting, resolving commercial disputes, and drafting and reviewing corporate and employment contracts. This guide draws on documents we prepare and notarise for clients in Dubai every working day.
Conclusion
A power of attorney is a straightforward instrument that becomes complicated only when it is drafted loosely. Get three things right and most problems disappear: name the transaction precisely rather than broadly, have the Arabic wording drafted properly rather than translated hurriedly, and confirm with the receiving authority what it expects before you sign. With the Civil Transactions Law recodified in 2026, this is also a sensible moment to have older powers of attorney reviewed rather than assumed to still read the same way.
If you are unsure which type your transaction needs, or whether it can be signed remotely, send us the details and we will confirm the correct route before anything is drafted.
Official Sources
Abdul Hamid is a legal consultant with extensive experience in providing legal advice in the United Arab Emirates. His expertise focuses on legal drafting, resolving commercial disputes, and drafting and reviewing corporate and employment contracts.