UAE inheritance law for expats: who inherits if there is no will

By MyHaven Team·Published 31 October 2026·7 minute read

If a non-Muslim expat dies in the UAE without a will, Federal Decree-Law 41 of 2022 gives half of the UAE estate to the surviving spouse and shares the other half equally among the children, sons and daughters alike. This guide sets out which law applies to you, the full default order, how a registered will replaces it, and the points where expats most often assume something the law does not say.

The short answer

Since 1 February 2023, the estates of non-Muslim foreigners living in the UAE fall under a civil law written for them: Federal Decree-Law 41 of 2022 on civil personal status. It lets you leave everything you own in the UAE to whoever you choose, by will. Where there is no will, Article 11 fixes the order: spouse and children first, then parents, then brothers and sisters, with men and women taking equal shares.

A registered will sets that order aside. It also closes the one door the default rule leaves open, which is an heir asking the court to apply a different country’s law to your estate.

Which law applies to a non-Muslim expat

Article 1 of the 2022 law applies it to non-Muslim foreigners residing in the UAE, and to non-Muslim UAE citizens, for marriage, divorce, inheritance, wills and parentage. Three details in that article matter for an estate.

• Your home law is an option. The law applies unless the person holds to the law of their home country. So an Indian or British resident can, in principle, have their home country’s inheritance rules applied instead. In practice that means proving to a UAE court what the foreign law says, in Arabic.
• Other UAE law can be agreed. The people the law covers may also agree to apply other family or personal status legislation in force in the UAE.
• It looks forward. The law applies to events after it came into force on 1 February 2023, so a death before that date follows the rules of the time.

Abu Dhabi had its own civil law first: Abu Dhabi Law No. 14 of 2021, which the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) cites for the same default split. The two say the same thing on the main question of who inherits.

Who inherits when there is no will

Article 11(2) is the default rule. Here is what it says, family situation by family situation, as published on the UAE’s official legislation portal.

Two things are worth reading closely. First, the federal text is clearest when a spouse and children both survive. Where there are no children, it moves straight to parents and siblings, and the spouse’s share in that case is spelled out more clearly in the ADJD’s guidance than in the article itself. Second, the article does not cover every family. Children with no surviving spouse, or a spouse with no other relatives, are not described in so many words.

Notice also who is not on the list at all: an unmarried partner, stepchildren, friends and charities. Under the default rule they receive nothing, however close they were to you.

How a registered will changes the order

Article 11(1) gives you the right to leave everything you own in the UAE to whoever you want, within the controls set by the law’s executive regulations. A will is how you use that right. It can leave the whole estate to your spouse, provide for a partner or stepchildren, set ages at which children receive money, and name the people who carry it out.

Article 11(3) is the other half of the picture. Without a will, any of a foreigner’s heirs may ask the court to apply the law that governs the estate under the UAE’s civil transactions law, which for succession generally points to the law of the deceased’s nationality. That request is available “unless there is a registered will to the contrary”. One word decides it: registered. Article 13 says the wills of people the law covers are recorded in a register kept for that purpose.

The civil transactions law has also provided that UAE law governs a will made by a foreigner about real estate located in the UAE. So a UAE will for a Dubai flat or an Abu Dhabi villa is read under UAE law, whatever your nationality.

A will made at home does not slot into this system automatically. Why, and what it would take to rely on one, is in is a foreign will valid in the UAE.

Assets in different emirates, and the DIFC

The federal law speaks of property “in the State”, meaning the UAE as a whole, so the same default rule reaches a bank account in Abu Dhabi, a flat in Dubai and a car registered in Sharjah. A will made on the ADJD’s own template is written the same way: it concerns your estate in the United Arab Emirates and lists property emirate by emirate, so one registered will covers assets in all seven emirates.

The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) runs a separate wills service with its own rules. Its own FAQ sets its own eligibility rules, including a minimum age of 18 and assets or minor children in the UAE. It is a different registry with different fees; the comparison with the ADJD and Dubai Courts routes is in DIFC vs ADJD vs Dubai Courts.

Where the “Sharia applies” worry comes from

Many expats arrive having read that Sharia law will decide who inherits their UAE assets. That worry has a real source, and it describes a different law from the one above.

The UAE’s general Personal Status Law, now Federal Decree-Law 41 of 2024, which replaced Federal Law 28 of 2005 from 15 April 2025, sets inheritance in fixed shares determined by Sharia. It is the law that governs inheritance for Muslims. It also states that it applies to people who are not UAE citizens unless they insist on their own law or another law permitted in the UAE.

Much of what is still online was written before the federal civil law took effect on 1 February 2023. Since then, a non-Muslim foreign resident has a civil law of their own, with equal shares for men and women and the right to decide by registered will. The simplest way to make sure your estate follows your choices, rather than any default, is to write them down and register them.

Jointly owned assets

In some countries, when one joint owner dies, their share passes to the other owner automatically. Expats often assume the same happens here. Nothing in Decree-Law 41 of 2022 says so: Article 11 deals with the estate a person leaves, and contains no rule that hands a joint owner’s share to the other owner.

• Property. The Dubai Land Department’s inheritance service is built around transferring the deceased owner’s share to their heirs. What that looks like in practice is in what happens to Dubai property when an expat dies.
• Bank accounts. How a joint account behaves depends on how it was opened and on the bank’s terms, so ask your bank directly. The wider picture is in what happens to a UAE bank account without a will.

If you want your share to go to the other owner, the dependable route is a will that says so. For couples, a pair of mirror wills does that for both of you at once.

What to do next

If the default order already matches what you want, you may feel no hurry. Most families find at least one gap: a partner the rule leaves out, young children with nobody named to look after them or their money, or parents abroad who would inherit alongside a spouse. A registered will closes those gaps and settles which law applies. Registering with the ADJD costs 950 AED in court fees for one will, and what happens to a family without one is in dying without a will in the UAE.

Our free assessment asks a few questions about your family and what you own and tells you which route fits before you pay anything. If tax is on your mind too, is there inheritance tax in the UAEcovers it. The law itself is on the UAE government’s legislation portal at uaelegislation.gov.ae.

MyHaven is not a law firm and this guide is not legal advice. It explains how the process works so you can make your own decisions. What that means