7 min read
Every maintenance website in Dubai says the same words. Professional. Reliable. Experienced. Trusted. You cannot tell any of them apart by reading, which is the problem.
What you can do is ask five questions. They take a minute each, they are all checkable, and the answers separate companies very quickly. Choosing the right maintenance company in Dubai can make property upkeep easier, reduce unexpected repair costs, and get problems handled before they turn into major ones.
One. Ask to see the trade licence
A trade licence lists the work a company is allowed to do. It is issued by Dubai Economy and it is a real document with real limits.
Plenty of companies advertise every trade and hold a licence covering a few of them. That matters on the day something goes wrong, because work done outside a licence is work nobody has to stand behind.
Ask for it before you book. A real company sends it without pausing, because they are asked all the time. If the answer is vague, or it turns into a story about how they work with a partner company, you have your answer.
Two. Ask who is actually coming to your door
A large part of this market is one person with a phone. He takes your booking and passes the job to whoever is free that day.
Sometimes that works out fine. The problem shows up afterwards. When something needs putting right, the company that took your money and the man who did the work are two different businesses, and neither one is responsible.
So ask a simple question: is the technician your own staff? Then look for the boring signs when they arrive. A uniform. A company vehicle. A named person you were told to expect.
Three. Ask about insurance, not just the licence
This is the question almost nobody asks, and it is the one that costs the most when it is skipped.
Drilling into a wall in a Dubai tower can hit a chilled water pipe, a neighbour cable or a waterproofing layer. That repair is expensive, and it is not always yours. If the contractor has no third party insurance, the bill lands on you or on your landlord.
It never comes up in conversation until the day it matters. Ask for the certificate at the same time as the licence.
Four. Ask for the price in two parts
A price given over the phone, before anyone has looked at the fault, is a guess. Guesses move in one direction once work has started.
A real quote comes after a diagnosis. It says what failed. It separates labour from parts, so you can see what you are agreeing to and check the part yourself if you want.
Be careful with a single total offered before the visit, and be careful with a price that is much lower than everyone else. Very cheap quotes are usually missing something, and the missing thing turns up later as an extra.
Five. Ask what the warranty actually covers
Work and parts are two different things. A warranty that does not say which one it covers usually covers neither.
Ask how long the workmanship is covered for, and ask what happens if the same fault returns inside that window. Ask separately what the parts carry, because that comes from the manufacturer and varies.
A short warranty written down plainly is worth more than a long one nobody will define. Get it on the invoice.
What good answers sound like
You are not listening for confidence. Everyone sounds confident. You are listening for specifics.
A good answer has a number in it, or a document attached, or an honest limit. "Thirty days on our work, parts carry the maker warranty, both written on your invoice" is a good answer. "Do not worry, we will look after you" is not an answer at all.
The best signal of all is a company that tells you when you do not need them. Anyone who says a job can wait until November, or that a fault is the building responsibility and not yours to pay for, has just given up money to tell you the truth.
Reviews, and how to read them
Reviews help, but only if you read them properly.
Look at how recent they are. A company with good reviews from three years ago and nothing since has changed. Look at what the reviews describe. Ones that name the actual job and the actual problem are worth more than ones that say excellent service.
Be careful with a wall of very short, very similar five star reviews posted around the same time. That pattern is easy to buy and it tells you nothing about the work.
What to do on the first visit
You learn more from one visit than from any amount of reading.
- Give them a small job first, not your bathroom renovation
- See whether they arrive inside the window they promised
- See whether the price you were quoted is the price on the invoice
- See whether they clean up before they leave
- See whether they tell you about anything else they noticed
Contracts, and when to sign one
Do not sign a yearly contract with a company you have never used. Use them a few times first.
When you do consider one, a fair contract says what is included, how many visits, how fast they respond, and what is not covered. If it is vague about what is not covered, that is where the arguments will be.
And if a company sells you a contract without first asking how many units you have and what condition they are in, they are selling, not advising. For one small flat, a contract often is not worth it. That should come from them, not from you.
The short version
Ask for the licence. Ask who is coming. Ask about insurance. Ask for the price split into labour and parts. Ask what the warranty covers.
Most companies will answer three of those five well. The ones who answer all five, without going quiet on any of them, are your short list. That is the whole method.
Want somebody to look at it?
Tell us what is happening and we will say what is likely involved and how soon we can come. If the honest answer is that it can wait, we will say that too.
