Renting in Muscat — the tenancy contract, registration, and the 2025 change that matters

Renting in Muscat is straightforward in practice and surprisingly under-documented in law. The basic statute dates from 1989; the important recent change is Royal Decree 12/2025. This guide sets out what we could confirm, and is explicit about the several widely repeated "rules" we could not trace to any legal text.

The law, and the 2025 change

The governing statute is Royal Decree 6/89, on the relationship between owners and tenants of residential, commercial and industrial premises and the registration of their lease contracts. It was amended by Royal Decree 12/2025, issued on 7 January 2025, published in the Official Gazette on 13 January, and in force six months later — 7 July 2025.

Three independent law-firm summaries agree on what RD 12/2025 does, and it is worth being precise, because it is not what most people assume:

• It creates a Rental Disputes Settlement Committee in each governorate, chaired by a Primary Court judge with municipal and governorate representatives, which now has exclusive jurisdiction over rental disputes including eviction. These matters no longer go to the ordinary courts.
• Applications must reach the committee within 7 days, and the committee must rule within 90 days, with one postponement allowed. Decisions are final and cannot be appealed.
• A lease agreement now carries the force of a writ of execution — it can be enforced directly, without first suing on it.
• Electronic service is valid. Notice by email, SMS or fax now counts.
• Deliberate non-compliance can be enforced by an Execution Judge, including by imprisonment.

The rent-increase cap: widely repeated, never sourced

Two consumer-facing guides state that rent cannot be increased in the first three years of a tenancy, and is capped at 7% a year thereafter, attributing this to 2008-era amendments. A third source states flatly that increases during an active lease term are prohibited, without mentioning either the three-year rule or the 7% figure.

We could not trace the three-year/7% rule to any decree, article number, law firm summary or government page. It is entirely plausible — it resembles long-standing tenancy protections elsewhere in the Gulf — but no source we found ties it to a specific provision. Do not sign or refuse a lease on the strength of it. If a rent increase is the deciding factor for you, put the cap in the contract itself, where it is enforceable regardless of what the statute says.

Registering the contract

A Muscat tenancy contract is registered with Muscat Municipality. Since 23 January 2024 registration has been available online through the Baladiyati app and the municipality website, alongside Sanad service centres. Initially the online route covered new residential contracts between individuals; corporate and government-entity leases were still using the older process. Electronically certified leases are recognised as official documents by judicial bodies.

Who is responsible for registering is genuinely unsettled. One knowledge base says the landlord bears primary responsibility with the agent usually handling it. Muscat Municipality's own FAQ does not say — it directs people to call the 1111 call centre. In practice landlords and agents usually initiate it, because they hold the ownership documents. If you are a tenant and nobody has mentioned registration, ask, and ask in writing.

The consequence of not registering is reported as severe: one source states that a tenant occupying under an unregistered lease has no protection under the law and could be evicted without recourse. That is a strong claim from a single non-official source, but it is directionally consistent with a 9% monthly penalty existing as a deterrent.

The 3% municipal tax on rent

Municipal tax on property rents is 3%. In tax terms it is a liability of the landlord — a tax on rental income, with no deductions permitted. What we could not establish is how it is collected in practice and whether it is routinely passed through to tenants contractually, as is common elsewhere in the Gulf. Omani electricity bills carry a "municipal fees" field, which suggests a billing mechanism exists, but we found nothing confirming that the 3% rent tax specifically flows through it.

One source refers to a "5% rent tax" paid by the landlord, which conflicts with the 3% figure and may be describing something else entirely. If a landlord or agent tells you that you owe a municipal levy on top of rent, ask which one, at what rate, and on what authority.

How the money actually works

• Post-dated cheques are the norm. The tenant issues cheques covering future rent periods — commonly 1, 2, 4, 6 or 12 of them depending on the instalment plan negotiated. Monthly standing orders are uncommon. Bounced cheques are a criminal matter in Oman, which is why landlords like this arrangement and why you should not write one you are unsure of.
• Security deposit is typically one month's rent.
• Electricity and water are separate, billed by Nama. Sources cite roughly OMR 50–75 a month for a two-bedroom, but summer air-conditioning load pushes this considerably higher.
• Building service charges are separate, cited at roughly OMR 30–100 a month, though this is thinly sourced.
• Parking is negotiable, not standard. Confirm it in writing.

Notice periods — sources disagree, so treat the contract as king

This is the weakest-evidenced area in the whole subject. Two consumer guides give materially different answers:

We are not going to pick a winner between these, because neither is tied to a legal provision and one of the two sources elsewhere cites a Dubai regulator as the body that handles Omani deposit disputes — which tells you what you need to know about its reliability.

The practical response is the same either way: negotiate the notice period into the contract, in writing, in both languages if the contract is bilingual. A committee ruling within 90 days on a clearly drafted clause is a far better position than an argument about which unsourced rule applies.

What a registered tenancy contract is good for

Utility connection is the one use we can confirm cleanly: Nama requires tenancy or ownership documents to open an electricity or water account.

Beyond that, one confirmation is worth noting because it is often presented as uncertain: the Royal Oman Police requires a copy of the residential lease as a document for the family joining visa, on both its English and Arabic pages. If you are planning to bring your family, your lease is part of the file.

For ordinary employment residence permits, school enrolment and bank account opening we found no official page stating that a registered tenancy contract is required. It may well be asked for in practice; we simply cannot cite a rule.

If something goes wrong

Since July 2025 the route is the governorate Rental Disputes Settlement Committee, not the courts. Your application must reach it within seven days of the dispute, and it must rule within ninety. The decision is final.

Two things follow from that. First, speed matters — the seven-day window is short, and missing it may cost you the forum. Second, the paperwork you have when the dispute starts is the paperwork you will be judged on, because there is no appeal in which to fix it later. A registered contract, a payment trail, and written communications are worth more than being right.

The fee for filing with the committee was left to a future ministerial decision and we could not find it published. Nor could we establish whether the committee handles rent-increase disputes as well as eviction and non-payment.

Practical checklist before you sign