Apartment Lease Contract in Saudi Arabia: What the Ejar Contract Says

The short answer: an apartment lease in Saudi Arabia is the unified residential lease contract (Ejar, in Arabic) issued by the Ejar platform. A licensed real estate broker registers it, and you and the landlord accept it online. There’s no template to write yourself or download and fill in: under Council of Ministers Resolution No. 292, a lease that isn’t registered on Ejar isn’t treated as a valid contract with administrative or legal effect (Ejar, in Arabic). Ejar does publish a sample of the residential contract as a PDF you can read in advance, but it’s watermarked as a draft that isn’t legally binding.

This guide covers the sections of the unified contract, a checklist of the clauses to check before you accept, how to accept the contract, and how to get or print your copy.

The clauses in this guide come from the sample residential contract on Ejar’s residential contract registration service page (the July 2024 version), and the rules are as published by Ejar and the Real Estate General Authority (REGA). The sample’s data sections are labelled in Arabic and English; its obligations clauses are in Arabic only. Checked on 3 November 2026.

What Is the Ejar Unified Contract?

Ejar issued a single unified lease contract for residential property, used by tenants, landlords and brokers alike. Every apartment lease has the same clauses; what differs from one contract to the next is the data filled in: who the parties are, where the unit is, the rent, and how the payments are split.

Three things set it apart from a paper agreement with a landlord:

• It’s an enforceable instrument. The contract is a registered contract and an enforceable instrument under Council of Ministers Resolution No. 131, so if either side breaches it, you go straight to the enforcement court without filing a lawsuit.
• Brokers can’t use any other contract. Ejar says a broker may not use a traditional contract in place of the unified one (Ejar, in Arabic); doing so is a violation.
• It proves where you live. The unified contract lets you prove your lease to the government and private bodies that ask for it.

So a “lease contract template” in Word or PDF from another website doesn’t replace a contract registered on Ejar. Use one only to understand what your contract will say, and better still, read Ejar’s own sample.

The Sections of an Apartment Lease Contract

The sample residential contract has three parts: data that gets filled in, then fixed clauses called “Obligations by Parties”, then an appendix that defines the terms.

Checklist: What to Check Before You Accept

When the contract reaches you for acceptance, read all of it. These are the clauses that matter most, with their numbers in Ejar’s sample:

The data: parties and unit

1. The landlord owns the deed or represents the owner. Compare the lessor’s name in section 2 with the title deed in section 7. If there’s a representative, check that section 3 states their capacity (agent, trustee, guardian…).
2. The unit is the one you saw. The unit number, floor and national address must match the apartment. By accepting, you confirm you inspected the unit and accept it as described in the contract (Article 2). If the contract says “furnished”, or lists air conditioners or kitchen cabinets, make sure they’re really there.
3. The meters and their readings. The electricity, water and gas meter numbers and current readings in section 9 are where your bills start. Photograph the meters on handover day and compare them with the contract. The landlord is responsible for the accuracy of the meter data and bears any cost from entering it wrongly (Article 6/3).
4. Your authority in section 10. In the sample, subletting the unit is not authorised, while repairs that don’t change anything fundamental in the property, and dealing with government bodies about the unit, are. Check what’s selected in yours.

The money: rent and payments

5. Fixed or variable rent. Before the rent is set, the two sides choose whether the annual rent is fixed or variable (rising or falling); if it’s variable, each year’s amount is written in. In Riyadh, annual rent increases are frozen for five years from 25 September 2025 (Ejar, in Arabic); see our guide to the Riyadh rent freeze.
6. What the contract value includes. Electricity, water, gas and parking can be included in the total as fixed amounts. The brokerage fee and the security deposit are outside the total contract amount, and the contract says who pays the brokerage fee.
7. The payment schedule. Each payment has a due date followed by a grace period: 30 days if the payment cycle is 180 days or longer, 15 days if it’s shorter. Check that the number and amounts of the payments match what you agreed.
8. Paying through Ejar. You must pay by the payment method set in the contract and prove payment through Ejar, and “no other proof is accepted” (Article 4/3). A transfer to the landlord outside Ejar may not count. How to pay is in our guide to paying rent through Ejar.

Term, maintenance and deposit

9. Term and renewal. The 2024 sample lets the parties choose between a lease that ends at the end of its term and one that renews automatically. Since 25 September 2025, though, a lease is deemed renewed automatically unless either party gives notice at least 60 days before it ends. See our guide to renewing a lease.
10. Who fixes what. The landlord is responsible for maintaining the property and its shared parts, and for fixing any fault that affects your use of the unit: leaks inside the walls (unless you caused them), sagging ceilings, and maintenance of the appliances listed in section 9 (Article 6/1). You handle normal wear-and-tear maintenance (Article 5/9). If the landlord hasn’t made a repair within five working days, you can ask Ejar for a report from an accredited assessor and have the repair done at the landlord’s expense (Article 6/2).
11. Alterations. Don’t alter the unit, or remove improvements or fixed décor, without the landlord’s approval through Ejar (Article 5/6), unless your authority in section 10 allows it.
12. The security deposit. It’s returned to you within 30 days of vacating the unit, less the cost of repairing any damage you caused. See our guide to security deposits.

Termination and disputes

13. Late payment. If you’re 15 or 30 days late after the grace period ends, the landlord may terminate the contract through Ejar, unless you agree another deadline through Ejar.
14. The one-year exit clause. The sample has an optional clause (Article 10/4): the landlord, the tenant or both may terminate the contract once 365 days have passed since it began, with at least 60 days’ notice before a payment falls due. It only applies if it’s switched on in your contract, so check it if you might leave early. The other ways out are in our guide to breaking a lease.
15. If the property is sold. The contract passes to the new owner with all its rights and obligations, and ends only under the contract’s own terms (Article 9/2). See our guide to what happens when the landlord sells.
16. Daily rent if you overstay. The contract sets a daily amount you pay if you don’t hand the unit back after the contract ends without a right to stay (Article 12/4). Check the amount written in.
17. Where disputes go. Rent, eviction and the daily rent go straight to the enforcement court. For any other dispute, the parties choose either arbitration at the Saudi Center for Real Estate Arbitration or the competent court (Articles 15/3 and 15/4). Check which one was chosen.
18. Additional terms. The parties can add terms in Article 18, but any term that conflicts with the unified contract is void. Read this section carefully: it’s the only place where your contract differs from anyone else’s.

Before you collect the keys, our move-in checklist covers Ejar’s handover form and transferring the electricity meter.

How to Accept a Lease on Ejar

A licensed real estate broker enters the contract details and sends it to the parties after reviewing it and paying the registration fee. The fee is SAR 125 per year, and it’s paid by the landlord, not the tenant.

You then get a text message with a link (Ejar, in Arabic) that takes you to the Ejar network to accept the contract, or you’ll find it in the contracts list in your account if you’ve logged in to Ejar before. The contract is registered as soon as both parties accept. The full steps and documents are in our guide to the Ejar platform.

Don’t accept before you’ve read the whole contract, especially the financial data, the payment schedule and the additional terms. If something is wrong, ask the broker to correct it before you accept.

How to Get or Print Your Copy

The contract is issued as identical electronic copies for the broker, the landlord and the tenant, and each party receives theirs electronically (Article 17). You can view all your past and current contracts registered on Ejar from your account.

Can you print it? Yes: the landlord and the tenant can print the unified contract, but there’s no need to, because it’s kept on Ejar (Ejar, in Arabic). If someone asks for your lease, the electronic copy is enough.

Paying Your Apartment Rent Monthly with Ejari

If you haven’t signed yet, Ejari pays the landlord the year’s rent upfront and you pay it back in 12 monthly payments. In that case Ejari is the lessor in your contract on Ejar, the contract is registered as part of signing up, and you get the same acceptance message. If you already have an active contract on Ejar, moving it to Ejari is possible but handled case by case: contact us first. Ejari charges a service fee, not interest; the details are in the terms and conditions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there an official apartment lease template I can download? Ejar publishes a sample residential contract as a PDF on its residential contract registration page, as a draft for reference only. Your real contract is issued by Ejar when the broker registers it.

Is a lease written between me and the landlord valid without Ejar? A lease that isn’t registered on Ejar isn’t treated as a valid contract with administrative or legal effect, under Council of Ministers Resolution No. 292. If your contract isn’t registered, see what to do in our guide to the Ejar platform.

What goes into an apartment lease contract? The unified contract has the details of the parties and the broker, the title deed, the property and unit with its meters, the tenant’s authority, the financial data and payment schedule, and then 18 fixed articles setting out each side’s obligations. What changes from one contract to the next is the data and the additional terms.

Who pays the lease registration fee? The landlord. It’s SAR 125 per year.

How do I get my lease contract as a PDF? Open the contracts list in your Ejar account and view your contract. You can print it, but the copy kept on Ejar is enough.

Ejari is a REGA-licensed platform that lets you pay your rent in monthly instalments. See how Ejari works.