Trade License Sale & Transfer
Selling the licence, changing owners, or transferring it on — with the approvals the Law requires first.
Selling or transferring a Dubai mainland license
A trade licence is not a thing you can simply hand to someone. The Law is blunt about it: an owner may not change the legal form of the business, modify the licence details, or “dispose of the Licence in any legal manner without first obtaining the approval of the DED and Competent Entities” (Law No. (13) of 2011, Article 10(a)).
That one sentence is why a licence sale agreed between two people over coffee is not a licence sale. The agreement is the easy half. The approvals are the half that decides whether it happens, how long it takes, and in some cases whether it can happen at all.
This page is the service for getting that done properly: sales, partner and share transfers, and the inheritance case, which arrives at the worst possible time and has its own provision in the Law.
What the service covers
- Reading the licence as the department holds it, before either side signs anything
- Establishing which approvals the transfer needs, and which authority gives each one
- The published newspaper notice where the Law requires one, and the two-week position that follows it
- Partner and shareholding changes, including a partner leaving
- The filing itself and follow-up until the licence reflects the new position
- The inheritance route, where the business has passed to heirs
- The things that surface mid-transfer: remarks, unpaid charges, a lapsed tenancy
Get this quoted
Itemised in writing, government charges shown separately, before anything is filed.
Which one do you need?
Who this page is for
- Owners selling a Dubai mainland business as a going concern
- Buyers who want the licence checked before money moves rather than after
- Partners adding, removing or changing shares between themselves
- A partner leaving a partnership, where the Law attaches a publication requirement
- Heirs who have inherited a business and do not know what the first step is
- Anyone who has agreed a sale informally and now needs it to be real
What we need from you
To open the file and tell you what the transfer involves:
- Trade licence copy
- Passport copy for each existing owner or partner
- Passport copy for the incoming owner or partner
- The memorandum of association, where the company has one
What comes after that depends on the legal form and on which approvals the transfer triggers, so we ask for it once we know, rather than sending you to collect papers that may not apply.
We do not publish a universal transfer checklist, because the department's requirements differ by legal form and by activity and we could not find them set out in one published general text. What is published, and what this page is built on, is the approval requirement in Article 10(a) and the publication requirement in Article 10(b).
The transfer, step by step
- Send the licence number and tell us what the change is. Sale, partner leaving, shares moving, or inheritance.
- We read the licence as the department holds it — what is on it, what is outstanding, whether there is a remark. A buyer should see this before paying anything.
- We identify the approvals. No change may be made "without first obtaining the approval of the DED and Competent Entities" (Article 10(a)), so this step is the job, not a formality.
- Written quote — government charges and our fee, itemised separately.
- Publication where the Law requires it, at the owner's expense, in a daily newspaper.
- Filing and follow-up until the licence shows the new position.
Turnaround and fees
- Fees: quote on request. Itemised in writing, government charges separately, before anything is filed.
- The timetable is set by the approvals, not by us. Where an external authority regulates the activity, that authority's pace is the transfer's pace.
- Where a notice has to be published, the Law's own two-week objection window applies to the cases in which it is required, and it cannot be shortened.
- No day count is published here because a transfer with one approval and a transfer with three are different jobs. Tell us which it is and we will give you a realistic figure.
The approval that comes first
Everything on this page sits under one sentence. An owner may not change the legal form, modify the licence details, or "dispose of the Licence in any legal manner without first obtaining the approval of the DED and Competent Entities" (Law No. (13) of 2011, Article 10(a)). Note the two bodies. The department is one approval; the "Competent Entities" — whichever authority regulates the activity — may be another. Which entities are competent depends on the activity, and the activity classification is the department's (Article 4(5)). The practical reading: a signed agreement between buyer and seller changes nothing until the approvals exist. We would rather tell you that before you have paid a deposit than after.
The newspaper notice, and who pays for it
This is the part of a transfer most sellers have not budgeted for. The department publishes licence modifications "at the owner's expense in at least one daily newspaper" in cases the Law sets out, including a change of legal form, the withdrawal of a general partner, a trade name change, and licence revocation (Article 10(b)). And if someone objects, the route is the courts rather than the counter: "A third party who has an objection to any modification or change related to a Business" files it with the competent court (Article 10(c)). So where publication is required, two things follow. There is a cost that belongs in the quote, and there is a period in which the change is public before it is final. Neither can be skipped, and we build both into the timetable we give you rather than discovering them halfway.
Partners leaving, shares moving
Changes between the people who own a business are the most common transfers we handle, and they are not all the same job. A partner leaving a partnership is named in the Law as a publication case — the "withdrawal of a general partner from a General Partnership, Simple Limited Partnership, or Business Partnership" (Article 10(b)(2)). So it carries the public step described above. Shares moving inside a company turns on the legal form and on the memorandum of association, and the right answer differs between an LLC and a civil company. Adding a partner brings the incoming person's own documents and, where the activity is regulated, the competent entity's view of them. What the three have in common is Article 10(a): none of them is effective because the parties agreed it.
What to establish before the money moves
If you are buying, the licence you are shown is not the licence as the department holds it, and the difference is where the risk lives.
What we check, as a piece of work on its own:
- Where the licence stands against its expiry, and what has accrued against it
- Whether there is a remark on it, and which authority placed it
- Whether the activity carries an external approval, and what that authority will want from a new owner
- Whether the tenancy registration is current
- What the memorandum actually says about transfers, where there is one
This check costs a fraction of a transfer and it is the only part of the process that can save you from the whole of it.
When a business passes to heirs
This is the case people arrive with at the worst possible moment, and the Law has a specific provision for it. Where ownership of a business "is devolved by inheritance or legacy to several heirs or legatees", they must choose one representative from among themselves; if they do not, a court order appoints one (Article 11). That is the first real step, and it comes before anything else can move: until there is a representative, there is nobody the department can deal with. Families often spend weeks on the licence itself without realising that this is the gate. We handle the licence side of it and tell you plainly where the line sits between what a documents clearing company does and what needs a lawyer or the court. If your situation is the second, we will say so.
What opens the file
- Trade licence copy
- Passport copy for each existing owner or partner
- Passport copy for the incoming owner or partner
- The memorandum of association, where there is one
That is enough for us to read the position and tell you which approvals the transfer brings with it. The rest depends on the answer to that, and asking for it first would be asking you to guess. Send it to WhatsApp on +971 4 223 6581, or use the form on this page.
Transfer questions, answered from the law
Can I just sell my licence to someone?
Not by agreement alone. An owner may not "dispose of the Licence in any legal manner without first obtaining the approval of the DED and Competent Entities" (Law No. (13) of 2011, Article 10(a)). The contract between you is the easy part; the approvals decide whether it completes.
Does a transfer have to be advertised?
In the cases the Law names, yes, and at the owner's expense. Article 10(b) requires the department to publish licence modifications in at least one daily newspaper in set cases, including a change of legal form, the withdrawal of a general partner, a trade name change and licence revocation. It surprises most sellers, so it belongs in the budget from the start.
What if someone objects?
They take it to court, not to the department. "A third party who has an objection to any modification or change related to a Business" files the objection with the competent court (Article 10(c)).
A partner is leaving the company. Is that the same thing?
It is handled under the same approval requirement, and for the partnership forms the Law names it explicitly as a publication case: the "withdrawal of a general partner from a General Partnership, Simple Limited Partnership, or Business Partnership" (Article 10(b)(2)). So it is a change with a public step attached, not an internal arrangement.
The owner died. What happens to the licence?
The Law has a provision for exactly this. Where ownership "is devolved by inheritance or legacy to several heirs or legatees", they must choose one representative from among themselves, and if they do not, a court order appoints one (Article 11). That representative is the person the department deals with, so appointing them is the real first step — before anything else can move.
I am buying. What should I check before I pay?
The licence as the department holds it, not the PDF you were sent: expiry position, what has accrued, whether there is a remark sitting on it, and whether the activity carries an external approval. We do that check as a standalone piece of work, and it is a great deal cheaper than discovering any of it afterwards.
Can the trade name transfer with the business?
A trade name change is one of the cases Article 10(b) lists as requiring publication, which tells you it is treated as a substantive change rather than a detail. Whether the name moves with the business in your case is something we check against the licence.
Can I transfer a licence that has expired?
Ask before assuming. An expired licence brings its own position — what accrued, and whether Article 13(b) touches it where activity had ceased — and that has to be dealt with before a change can be approved. Send the number and we will tell you what order things have to happen in.
Is there a remark on my licence blocking this?
Possibly, and it is the most common reason a transfer stalls. A remark is a restriction placed by an authority, and under Article 10(a) nothing changes on the licence without the approvals. We find out what is recorded and who placed it, from the licence number.
Can shares move without changing the licence?
That depends on the legal form and on what the memorandum says, and it is a question worth answering before rather than after. It is a short conversation and we would rather have it early.
What does a transfer cost?
Quote on request, in writing, itemised, with government charges and any publication cost shown separately.
Can this be done if one party is abroad?
Often, but not always, and it depends on what has to be signed and attested. Tell us who is where and we will tell you exactly what needs doing in person.
Figures and rules on this page name the instrument they come from and were checked on 10 November 2026. Authority rules, charges and processing times can change without notice. AL HUDHUD Documents Clearing Services is a documents clearing and PRO services company, not a law firm; this is information, not legal advice. Fees: quote on request.
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