RERA Form A, Form B and Form F, and when each is signed
Contract A gives a brokerage the right to market. Contract B is the buyer side agreement. Contract F is the sale. What each document does and who signs it.
6 min readLast verified: 2026-09-02العربية
RERA Form A, Form B and Form F, and when each is signed
Dubai's Real Estate Brokerage Practice Guide sets out three standard contracts a brokerage works with on a secondary market transaction. Contract A is the agreement between the seller and the brokerage authorising the brokerage to market the property. Contract B is the equivalent agreement on the buyer's side. Contract F is the sale agreement between the seller and the buyer once a deal is agreed. Contract A is the document a Trakheesi advertising permit application rests on, which makes it the one most brokers need to get right before anything else.
What is Contract A, and why does an advertising permit depend on it?
Contract A is the marketing agreement between the property owner and the brokerage. It is what gives the brokerage the legal standing to advertise the unit at all, and the Dubai Land Department's own Real Estate Ad Permit service card lists a copy of the marketing contract with the property owner among the documents a Trakheesi permit application requires. That single line is why Contract A sits upstream of almost every other document in a listing's paperwork. Without a current, correctly signed Contract A, there is no valid basis for the permit that our guide to why a Trakheesi permit gets rejected names as the single most common stalling point for new applications.
Contract A also interacts with RERA's registered owner list inside the Dubai REST app. Brokers are not permitted to contact an owner who is not on that list, so the practical sequence runs: confirm the owner is registered, sign Contract A with that owner, then apply for the Trakheesi permit citing that contract. Skipping the first step and going straight to a signature does not fix the underlying compliance gap if the person signing is not the registered owner RERA expects.
What is Contract B, and does a buyer's agent need one before showing a property?
Contract B is the mirror agreement on the buyer's side, between the buyer and the brokerage representing them. It formalises the relationship the way Contract A formalises the seller relationship, giving the buyer's brokerage standing in the transaction rather than leaving the arrangement informal. In a market where the same agency sometimes represents both sides of a deal, Contract A and Contract B can exist side by side on the same transaction, one covering the listing side and one covering the buying side, and a brokerage acting on both sides should be able to produce both documents rather than treat one as covering the whole relationship.
What is Contract F, and when does it actually get signed?
Contract F is the sale agreement itself, between the seller and the buyer, and it is the document that records the terms both sides have actually agreed to: price, unit, conditions and timeline. It comes after Contract A and Contract B, once marketing has produced a buyer and terms have been reached, rather than at the start of the relationship. A transaction that jumps to Contract F without the underlying Contract A being in place has a sale agreement sitting on top of a marketing relationship the paperwork cannot actually evidence, which is the kind of gap that surfaces later if a dispute or a permit check happens to look backward at how the deal was sourced.
Do off plan transactions use the same three contracts?
Not in the same shape. Off plan advertising rests on a marketing contract between the developer and the brokerage rather than an individual Contract A with an owner, because the developer is the party holding the units before a buyer exists. Our guide to off plan advertising permits sets out that structure and where it genuinely diverges from the secondary market documents described here. Once an off plan unit resells after a buyer already holds it, which document applies, the developer level agreement, an individual Contract A style agreement with the reselling buyer, or both, is not clearly published anywhere reviewed for either guide, and that ambiguity is worth flagging to a compliance contact directly rather than guessing.
What happens if a brokerage cannot produce Contract A on request?
The permit application itself is affected first, since the service card requirement is explicit. Beyond the permit, RERA's own conduct rules treat contacting an unregistered owner as a violation that can lead to suspended operations where a complaint or report follows, and a brokerage without a signed Contract A on file is one step away from exactly that scenario if the relationship with the owner was never formalised in the first place. Missing paperwork on a live deal is also the first thing a dispute resolution process asks for, so the absence of Contract A is a problem long before it becomes a permit problem.
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Get your first kit free| Contract | Between | Signed when |
|---|---|---|
| Contract A | Seller and brokerage | Before marketing begins, and before a Trakheesi permit is applied for |
| Contract B | Buyer and brokerage | When a buyer's agent takes on formal representation |
| Contract F | Seller and buyer | Once terms are agreed, after marketing has produced a deal |
Frequently asked questions
Is Contract A the same as an exclusive listing agreement?
The Practice Guide describes Contract A as the marketing agreement between owner and brokerage, and it does not itself set exclusivity terms. Whether a specific Contract A is exclusive or open, and how that interacts with the three broker permit cap on the same unit, is a term the brokerage and owner agree within the contract rather than something the form dictates on its own.
Can one brokerage hold both Contract A and Contract B on the same deal?
Yes, where the same agency represents both the seller and the buyer. Each contract formalises a separate relationship, so both should exist as separate documents rather than one covering both sides.
Does Contract F need to be signed before a Trakheesi permit is issued?
No. The permit application depends on Contract A, the marketing authorisation, which exists before a buyer has even been found. Contract F comes later, once a sale is agreed.
What replaces Contract A on an off plan project?
A marketing contract between the developer and the brokerage, since the developer rather than an individual owner holds the units before they are sold. See our guide to off plan advertising permits for how that document functions in practice.
Does a brokerage keep a copy of all three contracts on every transaction?
A given transaction rarely produces all three at once for one brokerage, since a single agency more often holds either the seller side, Contract A, or the buyer side, Contract B, rather than both. Contract F only exists once the two sides have actually reached terms, so an agency working a listing that never sells will hold Contract A and nothing else. Keeping whichever documents apply on file, correctly dated and signed, is what a permit check or a dispute review actually asks to see, not a complete set regardless of how the deal played out.
Sources
- Dubai Land Department, Real Estate Ad Permit service card, marketing contract requirement for permit applications
- Dubai Land Department, Verify License and Permits service
- Dubai Land Department, DLD fines 10 real estate companies and warns another 30 for not adhering to advertising requirements
Last verified: 2026-09-02