Power of attorney for loan
Power of Attorney for a Loan in the UAE
Borrowing through an agent touches two of the acts UAE law makes a power of attorney name, mortgage and acknowledgment, and most wordings carry only one. We draft the text, arrange the Arabic and attend the notary public with you.
- Both named acts covered
- A ceiling on borrowing
- Lender asked first
Power of attorney for a loan, at a glance
A power of attorney for a loan is a special agency, ratified before a notary public, that lets a person you name arrange borrowing in your name and admit the debt that comes with it. Whether your lender will act on it, and in what form, is a question only that lender can answer, so put it to them before anything is drafted.
The governing law
Federal Decree-Law 25/2025, Article 870
Acts the text names
Mortgage and acknowledgment, not one alone
Who decides acceptance
Your lender, on its own requirements
Borrowing touches two named acts
The Civil Transactions Law in force is Federal Decree-Law 25/2025. The 1985 Civil Code is repealed, so the Article 955 citation still copied across provider sites points at a statute that no longer exists. Agency now runs from Article 866 to Article 903. Article 871 says an agency written in general terms grants acts of management only. Read the list in Article 870 below and count how many of its named acts a loan touches.
Federal Decree-Law 25/2025, Article 870(1)
Any act that is not an act of management and preservation requires a special agency specifying the type of act and the dispositions it entails, particularly in donations, sale, settlement, mortgage, acknowledgment, arbitration, administering and accepting an oath, and pleading before the court.
What borrowing through an agent actually involves
Borrowing through someone else is a chain of separate jobs. Agreeing the terms. Signing the facility. Admitting, in your name, that the money is owed. Receiving the funds. Saying where they go. People ask for this when a posting keeps them abroad while a transaction completes, when a co-borrower cannot travel, or when the signing has to happen in one country while the borrower is in another.
We provide notary services. We are not a bank and we do not give financial advice. Our lawyers and legal consultants draft the text, arrange the Arabic through a legal translator registered with the Ministry of Justice, and attend the appointment with you. The ratification itself is done before a notary public, who verifies identity and capacity and reads the content out before anything is signed.
Six decisions that belong in the text
Each line below is a separate choice, and each one is easier to settle now than at a counter later. A document that lets your agent give security but never mentions admitting the debt leaves half the transaction unauthorised, and a document that does the reverse is no better. Write both acts in, then set the boundaries you want around them.
- Mortgage, named as an act rather than left to implication
- Acknowledgment of the debt, written in as its own authority
- Whether the agent may agree the terms or only sign what you approved
- A ceiling on the amount that may be borrowed in your name
- Whether the agent may receive the funds, and the account they go into
- Whether one named facility is meant, or any borrowing the agent arranges
Naming only one of them leaves a gap
These are not two ways of describing the same thing. One is your agent saying, in your name, that a sum is owed and on what terms. The other is your agent putting an asset behind it. Article 870 names them separately, and a text drafted for one does not reach the other, so decide early whether your borrowing needs both.
Admitting the debt
Signing the facility in your name
Your agent agrees the terms and puts your name to the obligation. That admission is what binds you, so the authority to make it has to be written in.
Giving the security
Charging an asset behind the borrowing
If the borrowing is secured, mortgaging is its own named act and needs its own wording. What that involves sits on our mortgage power of attorney page.
What we do, and what only your lender can answer
A notary ratifies the signature and the capacity of the person signing. That is not the same as a lender agreeing to act on the document. Lenders set their own requirements, and those requirements come from the lender rather than from statute or from the notary, so the question goes to them first and the drafting follows the answer.
- Draft the wording so both named acts appear, with the limits you want
- Arrange the Arabic through a legal translator registered with the Ministry of Justice
- Attend the notary public with you and hand the ratified instrument over
- Whether it will act on a power of attorney at all
- What it needs to see in the text, and in what form
- Everything about the borrowing itself, from the terms to the approval
The order these steps go in
Four steps, in this order, because the order is what keeps the document from failing. The question to the lender comes first, since it is the lender that decides what it will act on. A text that has already been through the notary is slow and awkward to change, and changing it means drafting again and signing again.
1
Put the question to your lender
Lenders set their own requirements for the documents they will act on. We ask yours what it needs before anything is drafted, while the answer can still shape the text.
2
We draft around the two named acts
Mortgage and acknowledgment both go in by name, with your ceiling, the account the funds go into, and anything the lender asked to see written alongside them.
3
We provide the Arabic and check it
The notarial instrument is in Arabic. Under Dubai Law 4/2013 a foreign language document is accepted only with a certified translation, and both versions are signed by the parties.
4
The signing happens before a notary public
The notary checks identity from an ID card or passport, confirms capacity and consent, and reads the content out. We attend, then pass the ratified instrument to your lender.
The information a draft is built from
The identity side is short, because a notary verifies identity from an ID card, a passport or another official document issued by the State. No official source requires a visa copy, so we do not ask for one. What takes the thinking is the borrowing side, and whatever your lender has already told you it wants.
From you, the borrower
The person giving the power
- Passport copy, and Emirates ID if you hold one
- What the borrowing is for, in plain terms
- The ceiling you want written into the text
- The date you want the authority to end, if you want one
The person you are appointing
The agent named in the text
- Full name spelled as it appears in the passport
- Emirates ID number, or a copy of the Emirates ID or passport
- Whether the agent may receive the funds as well as sign
- Whether the agent may appoint a substitute to act instead
From the lending side
What the wording has to fit
- The lender, if one has already been chosen
- Anything the lender has asked to see in the text
- Whether security is involved, so the mortgage act is named too
- Whether the same person is to sign more than one document
Frequently asked questions
The questions we are asked most often on this one.
Why does a loan wording have to name two acts?
Because Article 870(1) of Federal Decree-Law 25/2025 lists mortgage and acknowledgment separately among the acts that need a special agency. Putting security behind the borrowing is one act. Admitting, in your name, that the money is owed is another. A text that authorises one of them leaves the other unauthorised, which is why both are written in.
What does acknowledgment mean on a loan document?
It is the act of admitting an obligation in your name. When an agent puts your signature to a facility, the agent is stating that you owe what the document says you owe. Article 870(1) names acknowledgment among the acts a general wording does not reach, so the authority to make that admission belongs in the text.
Can my agent receive the loan money?
Only if the text says so. Agreeing the borrowing and taking the funds are different things, and an authority to sign is not an authority to collect. If the money is to be received, name the act and name the account it goes into. Leaving that open hands a wide discretion over money you will owe.
Will my lender accept a power of attorney?
That is a question for the lender, not for us and not for the notary. Lenders set their own requirements for the documents they will act on, and those requirements sit on top of anything the law says. Ask yours before drafting begins, because the answer decides how the text is written.
Which fees on this document are published by the government?
Cabinet Resolution 19/2024 sets AED 100 per party for executing or notarising a general or special power of attorney, and AED 50 for each page of a translation included in the instrument. A private notary adds 30 percent, so AED 130 per party. Dubai Courts sits outside that federal schedule under Dubai Law 4/2013.
What happens if I do not speak Arabic at the appointment?
The notary reads the content out before anything is signed. If the notary is unfamiliar with your language, Federal Decree-Law 20/2022 requires an interpreter whose name is listed in the Ministry’s Interpreter Register to be engaged. That is separate from the translation of the document itself, which is done in advance by a registered legal translator.
Can one document cover more than one loan?
It can, if the wording is written that way. An authority tied to one named facility ends with that facility. An authority written for any borrowing the agent arranges is far wider and keeps running until it is revoked or reaches the term written into it. Decide which of the two you mean before drafting starts.
Does the term written into the document matter?
It does, because nothing else supplies one. UAE law sets no general statutory validity period for a power of attorney. Article 897 of Federal Decree-Law 25/2025 extinguishes an agency on completion of the work entrusted to the agent, on expiry of the term specified for it, or on the death or loss of capacity of either party.
Start here
Send us the lender’s answer and we will draft
Tell us who is borrowing, who you want to appoint, and what your lender has said it needs. We will draft the wording so both named acts are in it, put your ceiling and the receiving account into the text, arrange the Arabic, and attend the notary public with you. If the lender wants a change, it goes in before you sign rather than after.
Tell us what the document has to do
Say who will receive it and what you need it to allow, and you will get a straight answer on the wording, the government fees and what to bring. You can also send it through the contact form.
Call us
Speak to the person who will handle your file and get an answer on the same call.
Send photographs of your passport, your Emirates ID and anything the matter attaches to.
Best for a company matter, or anything that runs to several documents.
Visit the office
Jebel Ali area, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai. Come in, or have it handled remotely and only turn up to sign.
Opening hours. Monday to Thursday, 9:00 to 18:00. Friday, 9:00 to 12:00. Saturday, 9:00 to 18:00. Sunday, closed.