Moving house over the summer? Here’s a new piece of info that you need to know…

The checklist for moving into a new villa or apartment in Dubai is already lengthy, with any number of deposits and fees to pay along the way.

Well, you can now add another step to the process.

Earlier today DEWA announced that all tenants moving into a new property as of 1 July 2017 will need to have their Ejari contract attested before the authority will turn on electricity and water services.

Remember Ejari? It’s the system that the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) uses to register your tenancy contract, and was made mandatory by DEWA last year. It’s also super useful when dealing with any tenancy disputes that may arise.

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To help make the new procedure a little less painful, DEWA has a list of 800 approved real estate offices across Dubai where residents can have their Ejari contract attested.

Once the attestation process is completed, customers no longer need to visit a DEWA office and instead will receive an SMS and email containing account and premise numbers, plus a link to pay the security deposit. Only after the deposit is paid will the service be activated.

We reached out to a Better Homes realtor who advised us that your agent should be able to handle the attestation for you – similarly to how they can take care of the initial Ejari registration, albeit for an additional fee.

It was unclear, however, whether an additional fee would be charged for the attestation. We will update this story once we receive further confirmation on this.

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Image: Getty