The keys arrive and so does a small cluster of invoices that nobody put in the spreadsheet. This guide covers the utility half of them, in the two emirates where we could read the figures at source.
Dubai’s are published and precise. Abu Dhabi’s process is documented but its deposit amount is not, and the last thing a guide like this should do is invent one — so it says where the gap is and how to close it in a phone call.
Two emirates, two entirely different processes
In Dubai, electricity and water come from the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), and the whole move-in is wired into the tenancy registration: issue an Ejari and DEWA opens the account without a separate application.
In Abu Dhabi the equivalent utility is the company most people still call ADDC, which since January 2025 trades as TAQA Distribution following the merger of Abu Dhabi Distribution Company and Al Ain Distribution Company under one customer-facing brand. There, the trigger is Tawtheeq rather than Ejari, and the account is opened in the name shown on the registered tenancy contract.
One practical warning that applies at the time of writing: the ADDC website and mobile app are under maintenance. The holding page confirms supply itself is unaffected and directs customers to pay through TAMM, a banking app or an authorised exchange centre, and to call the contact centre on 8002332 within the UAE or +971 2 817 3222 from abroad for everything else. That outage is also why parts of this guide describe Abu Dhabi’s process without quoting a figure.
This guide covers Dubai and Abu Dhabi only. The northern emirates — Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, Umm al-Quwain and Fujairah — are served by different utilities under different rules, and we have not verified their deposit or connection figures from a primary source. So we print none for them, rather than a number that looks authoritative because it is on a page like this one.
Dubai: what DEWA actually charges
DEWA publishes its move-in charges, and they are unusually easy to plan around because they are fixed rather than proportionate to the property’s value.
The refundable security deposit is AED 2,000 for a flat and AED 4,000 for a villa in residential premises. For non-residential premises the deposit is calculated on the premises’ consumption instead. One detail owners routinely miss: DEWA states that a property owner’s security deposit will be refunded upon sale of the premises only — it does not come back when you move out and let the place to someone else.
On top of the deposit sit the activation charges: AED 125 for connecting electricity and water on small meters, or AED 300 on large meters, plus AED 10 for registration, AED 10 knowledge fee and AED 10 innovation fee. Small meters are the directly connected single- and three-phase meters found in homes; large meters are the current-transformer LV and HV meters used on bigger supplies.
For an ordinary flat or villa that comes to AED 155 alongside the deposit. That total is our arithmetic on DEWA’s four published components, not a line item DEWA itself quotes, so treat it as a sum rather than a figure to cite.
Holders of a Thukher card (UAE nationals aged 60 and above) or a Sanad card (People of Determination), both issued by the Community Development Authority, receive a 50% discount on activation charges.
Dubai: Ejari does most of the work
DEWA’s move-in service is digitally integrated with the Dubai Land Department through the real estate management companies and DLD-authorised offices that issue Ejari certificates. Once the Ejari is issued, DEWA sends a welcome email that includes the new account number, security deposit details and a payment link, and an SMS with the same details. DEWA’s own guidance is emphatic that you do not need to request the move-in separately, do not need to submit documents to the Ejari office, and do not need to hand a DEWA payment receipt back to them. All they need from you is the nine-digit premises number displayed on the door of the unit.
Two groups fall outside that automation and must apply through the DEWA website or app: property owners moving into their own unit, and tenants in free zones whose tenancy is exempt from Ejari. The documentation DEWA lists is a valid Ejari number for tenants, a valid tenancy contract for free-zone customers, a title deed or sale and purchase agreement for owners, a passport image or Emirates ID number for GCC nationals and investors, and a trade licence for commercial and industrial customers not registered with the Department of Economic Development.
Once the deposit and activation fees are paid, supply is connected within 15 working hours. If it has not been, DEWA asks you to call its customer care centre. Applications run around the clock through the DEWA website, the DEWA Smart App and, for individuals, the Dubai Now app.
A note for off-plan buyers taking handover: the owner route is the one that applies to you, on a title deed or sale and purchase agreement, and it is a separate application rather than an automatic one. The rest of the handover sequence is in the off-plan buying process.
Dubai: moving within the emirate, and moving out
If you are moving from one Dubai property to another, use the transfer service rather than closing one account and opening another. It moves the security deposit from the old account to the new one, and the charges are slightly lower: AED 112.50 for the disconnection leg and AED 112.50 for the connection leg on small meters (AED 300 each on large meters), plus the AED 10 registration, knowledge and innovation fees. The deposit itself still follows the property type, so a flat-to-villa move means topping up from AED 2,000 to AED 4,000. Outstanding dues on the old premises must be settled before you can apply.
A straight move-out costs AED 125 on small meters or AED 300 on large meters, plus AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation; a demolition disconnection is AED 100 on small meters. Thukher and Sanad cardholders again receive 50% off the deactivation charge. All previous bills must be paid in full before you can request a move-out.
Deactivation happens within 24 working hours of the date and time you select, the final bill follows by email and SMS within 24 working hours of that disconnection, and the clearance certificate is issued automatically once the final bill is settled. DEWA counts working hours as Monday to Saturday, 07:00 to 20:00.
You choose your refund method when you apply — IBAN transfer, cheque, transfer to another active DEWA account, or applying later — and an IBAN refund requires bank proof in the account holder’s name exactly as registered with DEWA, plus a verification code sent to your registered email and mobile. Two different IBANs cannot be used on the same deactivation request. Because the service is linked to Ejari cancellation, cancelling the Ejari prompts DEWA to nudge the tenant to deactivate, and the clearance certificate is shared with both the tenant and RERA automatically.
Abu Dhabi: Tawtheeq first, account second
Abu Dhabi inverts nothing about the logic and everything about the paperwork. Tawtheeq — the emirate’s tenancy contract register — is mandatory for tenancy contracts in Abu Dhabi city and the surrounding areas, and the UAE Government Portal states plainly that registration of lease contracts is compulsory in order to connect the utility services, covering water, electricity, gas and telecommunications.
TAQA Distribution’s own position is that if you are registered with Tawtheeq your water and electricity accounts will be set up for you, under the same name shown on the tenancy contract, with the first bill arriving within about a month. Owner-occupiers, whose contracts cannot be registered on Tawtheeq, have to make a separate application online or at a branch.
The documents differ by capacity. Tenants need a passport (identity and visa pages), Emirates ID, the tenancy contract, a family book for UAE nationals, and the previous account closing letter for the property they are moving into. Owners need the same identity documents plus a copy of the property ownership deed or a valid site plan issued by Abu Dhabi Municipality, and again the previous account closing letter. That last item catches people out: it is issued to the outgoing occupier, so you get your copy from the landlord.
If your Emirates ID has not come through yet you can still open the account, but you must supply the card number within 40 days of the move-in application date. You receive an SMS and an email once the account is set up and services are connected.
We do not quote an Abu Dhabi connection turnaround. DEWA’s 15 working hours is published; nothing equivalent appears on any Abu Dhabi source we reached, and transplanting one emirate’s service time onto the other would be a guess dressed as a fact.
Abu Dhabi: the deposit, and an honest gap
A refundable deposit exists in Abu Dhabi — TAQA Distribution describes how it is handled on the way out in some detail. It is refunded as part of the move-out process once the final bill is settled: if the account is in credit the whole amount comes back, and if there is a debit balance the deposit is applied to the bill and the remainder returned. It is refunded by bank transfer only; you cannot collect it at a branch. You may instead have it transferred to the TAQA Distribution account of another property, or donate it to Emirates Red Crescent.
What we cannot give you is the number. No figure for the Abu Dhabi security deposit appears on any primary source we were able to reach. The utility’s own website and app are down for maintenance, and TAMM — the Abu Dhabi government services platform — lists six TAQA Distribution services for individuals (bill payment, balance refund or transfer, change of property ownership information, critical medical conditions registration, social affairs exemptions, and a to-whom-it-may-concern certificate) with no new-connection or move-in service among them, and no cost attached to any of them. A figure circulates widely in the property press and on brokerage sites; we have not been able to confirm it against ADDC, TAQA Distribution, TAMM or the UAE Government Portal, so we are not printing it.
The same applies to Abu Dhabi activation charges. TAQA’s residential move-in guidance does not mention one at all, so we would not even assume a charge exists in the DEWA sense, let alone quote a figure for it. Nor do we publish Abu Dhabi electricity and water tariffs: the rates and tariff-calculator links currently resolve to the offline site.
The practical answer while the website is down is the one TAQA Distribution gives itself: call 8002332 from inside the UAE or +971 2 817 3222 from outside, and confirm the current deposit before you budget for it. If you are buying rather than renting, ask the developer’s handover team what they have seen collected on comparable units in the same building this year.
District cooling deposits, in chilled-water communities, are a separate charge again — set by the cooling provider rather than by either utility or either regulator. We publish no figure for those either, in any emirate.
The bill is not only the utility: municipality and authority fees
In both emirates the utility collects a housing charge that has nothing to do with electricity or water, and it is the single most under-budgeted line in a first-year move.
Dubai. Tenants pay a housing fee to Dubai Municipality calculated at the rate of 5 per cent of the yearly rental charges, and the UAE Government Portal is explicit that the housing fees are added to the monthly electricity and water bills. On an AED 120,000 tenancy that is AED 500 a month arriving on the DEWA bill. The portal frames the charge around tenancy, and we make no claim either way about whether an owner-occupier pays it — confirm that with Dubai Municipality.
Abu Dhabi. TAQA Distribution collects the municipality fee on behalf of the Department of Municipalities and Transport, calculated at 5% on either the rental value or the rental index, whichever is higher, invoiced monthly in instalments and due from the contract start date. A minimum total payment of AED 450 applies. Here the position on owners is stated: only tenants pay it. It is due for the full period of the tenancy contract whether or not the property is occupied, you are registered for it automatically when you register with Tawtheeq, and the payment period is ten days, the same as your utility account. If you have never received a municipality fee bill, TAQA’s own guidance is that your contract is either not properly registered with the municipality or not correctly linked to your utility account — and that unresolved, your services may be disconnected.
Al Maryah and Al Reem Islands. Tenancies registered with ADGM’s Registration Authority carry Authority fees instead: 5% of the rental contract’s value for all premises, collected monthly by TAQA Distribution on ADGM’s behalf. TAQA gives the worked example itself — a one-year contract at AED 120,000 produces 5% of AED 120,000 divided by 12, or AED 500 a month. Registration is automatic when you register the contract with ADGM, renewal notification comes from ADGM around two months before expiry, and early termination requires all outstanding Authority fees to be paid in full before TAQA will issue clearance to close your water and electricity accounts.
Moving out in Abu Dhabi: the account closing letter
Abu Dhabi’s exit document is the account closing letter — the same thing that used to be called a clearance certificate. TAQA Distribution issues it when a tenant moves out and the final bill has been settled, and once you hold it you are no longer responsible for the water and electricity accounts at the property.
The process starts by telling TAQA your preferred move-out date, online, by phone or at a branch. They calculate what you have used, prepare the final bill — usually ready within a few days of the move-out date — and issue the closing letter once it is paid. If you need the letter immediately, they can sometimes issue an estimated bill based on your previous usage; pay that and the letter becomes available to download straight away.
Keep the letter. The next occupant of the property needs a copy of it to start their own move-in, which is the same reason you had to chase your landlord for the previous one on the way in.
Two related TAMM services are worth knowing about, both listed as free of charge: balance refund or transfer, which handles refunding a credit balance after an account is closed or moving it to another account (six working days, requiring Emirates ID and a power of attorney where an agent applies), and change property ownership information, which transfers ownership data from one owner to another (three working days, requiring a no-objection letter signed by the other owners and copies of their Emirates IDs).
The rest of the handover bill — the first service charge invoice, the title deed conversion and the registration fees that came before it — is in what an off-plan purchase actually costs.
Questions buyers ask
How much is the DEWA deposit, and do I get it back?+
AED 2,000 for a flat and AED 4,000 for a villa in residential premises; non-residential deposits are calculated on the premises’ consumption. It is refundable, and you choose the refund method when you request the move-out — IBAN transfer, cheque, transfer to another active DEWA account, or applying later. One exception matters for landlords: DEWA states that a property owner’s deposit is refunded on sale of the premises only.
What does it cost to switch DEWA on, beyond the deposit?+
AED 125 for connecting electricity and water on small meters (AED 300 on large meters), plus AED 10 registration, AED 10 knowledge fee and AED 10 innovation fee. That sums to AED 155 for a normal home — our arithmetic on DEWA’s published components rather than a figure DEWA quotes as one line. Thukher cardholders aged 60 and above and Sanad cardholders receive a 50% discount on the activation charge, and supply is connected within 15 working hours of the deposit being paid.
Do I have to apply to DEWA myself?+
Usually not. The move-in is integrated with Ejari: once the certificate is issued by a real estate management company or a DLD-authorised office, DEWA creates the account and sends a welcome email and SMS with the account number, deposit details and a payment link. You only need to give the Ejari office your nine-digit premises number. Owner-occupiers and tenants in free zones do have to apply, through the DEWA website or app.
What do I need to open a TAQA Distribution (ADDC) account in Abu Dhabi?+
For tenants: passport identity and visa pages, Emirates ID, the tenancy contract, a family book for UAE nationals, and the previous account closing letter for the property you are moving into. For owners: the same identity documents plus a copy of the ownership deed or a valid Abu Dhabi Municipality site plan, and again the previous account closing letter. If your tenancy is registered with Tawtheeq the account is created for you automatically, in the name on the contract, with the first bill arriving within about a month.
How much is the Abu Dhabi utility deposit?+
We cannot give you a verified figure. TAQA Distribution confirms a refundable deposit exists and describes how it is returned — bank transfer only, after the final bill is settled, or transferable to another property’s account — but publishes no amount we could reach, its website and app are currently under maintenance, and TAMM lists no new-connection service or fee. Figures quoted elsewhere in the market are not confirmed by any primary source. Call 8002332 within the UAE or +971 2 817 3222 from abroad and confirm the current amount before budgeting.
What is the 5% charge on my utility bill?+
A housing or municipality fee, not a utility charge. In Dubai, tenants pay Dubai Municipality 5% of yearly rent, added to the monthly DEWA bill. In Abu Dhabi, TAQA Distribution collects 5% of the rental value or the rental index, whichever is higher, on behalf of the Department of Municipalities and Transport, spread monthly with a minimum total of AED 450 — payable by tenants only, and due for the full contract term whether or not the property is occupied. On Al Maryah and Al Reem Islands an ADGM Authority fee of 5% of contract value applies instead.
What is an account closing letter, and why does the new tenant need mine?+
It is Abu Dhabi’s utility clearance document, formerly called a clearance certificate, issued by TAQA Distribution once you move out and the final bill is settled. It releases you from responsibility for the property’s water and electricity accounts. Because the incoming occupier has to submit a copy of the previous one to open their own account, the letter travels with the property — which is why you request yours from the landlord when moving in.
What about Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, Umm al-Quwain and Fujairah?+
This guide does not cover them. Those emirates are served by different utilities under different rules, and we have not verified their deposit, activation or tariff figures against a primary source. Rather than repeat numbers we have not read at source, we publish none — ask the relevant utility directly.
Sources
- · DEWA — activation of electricity and water (move-in)
- · DEWA — deactivation of electricity and water (move-out)
- · DEWA — transfer of electricity and water (move-to)
- · UAE Government Portal — public utilities
- · UAE Government Portal — leasing a property in the UAE (housing fee, Ejari and Tawtheeq)
- · TAQA Distribution — account management and bills (residential help and support)
- · TAMM — TAQA Distribution services for individuals
- · TAMM — balance refund or transfer (TAQA Distribution)
- · TAMM — change property ownership information (TAQA Distribution)
- · TAMM — water and electricity bill payment (TAQA Distribution)
- · TAQA Distribution — corporate site and the ADDC/AADC merger announcement
This guide is general information, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Rules change — verify current requirements with the relevant authority or a licensed advisor before acting. Last reviewed 8 September 2026.