Dubai court rejects annulment of villa gift to ex-wife and daughters
Judge rules property transfer cannot be revoked after 15 years and lawful sale
Dubai: A Dubai civil court has rejected a lawsuit filed by a man seeking to invalidate a villa gift he granted in 2006 to his second wife and their two daughters, or alternatively to rescind the contract and recover the property or its value.
The claimant filed the case in January, stating that he had transferred ownership of the Dubai villa, built on a residential plot, to his second wife and daughters as a gift. The claimant said he has seven children from his first marriage and claimed the gift had been made under psychological pressure from his second wife. He also argued that the gift violated the principle of equality among children in financial gifts, Al Khaleej Arabic daily reported.
Stay updated: Get the latest faster by downloading the Gulf News app - it's completely free. Click here for Apple or here for Android. You can also find it on the Huawei AppGallery.
The man said he had required his wife not to dispose of the property. However, the couple later divorced in 2021. He alleged that she sold the villa in 2025 without his knowledge, prompting him to seek annulment of the gift or the return of the property or its value.
The defendants asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that more than 15 years had passed since the gift contract was executed and registered in 2006, after which legal ownership was transferred to them. They also maintained that the sale of the property to a third party in April 2025 had been carried out lawfully through a unified sale contract issued by the Dubai Land Department.
The defendants submitted documents including the sale contract and correspondence indicating that the claimant had been aware that the property had been gifted to his daughters.
In its ruling, the court explained that under the Civil Transactions Law, a gift constitutes the transfer of property to another party without compensation and becomes effective once the gifted property is received. Registration of a gift contract in the real estate registry transfers ownership and establishes the resulting legal status.
The court further noted that gifts made between spouses or to close relatives cannot be revoked after the recipient takes possession. It added that the recipient’s subsequent disposal of the property through a transfer of ownership represents an additional legal barrier preventing the donor from revoking the gift.
