What an interior design contract should say

An interior design contract is short on law and long on scope. It says what the designer delivers, what each part costs, who owns the drawings, what happens when you change your mind, and who files and pays for the approvals the design sets off. Several of those points are already fixed by UAE authorities and developers, so the contract should follow their rules rather than argue with them.

Who owns the drawings?

Whoever the contract names, so make it name you. One plain sentence does it: the drawings pass to you once the stage that produced them is paid, and you may use them with any contractor. Without it, reuse is left to argument, and a design-only arrangement loses its point. If another firm may have to amend the drawings later, ask for the files in an editable format as well as PDF.

Developers build their approval files from the same drawings, so the contract should also say who assembles the NOC file for your community and whether that work sits inside the fee.

How many revision rounds are included?

As many as the contract states, and the number belongs beside the price of one more. Write it per stage: rounds on the concept, rounds on the layouts, rounds on the working drawings. A change after a stage is signed off is a variation, priced as the contract says, not a free revision. A flat fee, published by AI Designs at AED 20,000 to 150,000 and above, holds only for the scope and the rounds written beside it.

Can you supply your own furniture?

Yes, if the contract allows it, and it should also say what that does to the fee. Under a percentage fee, furniture you buy yourself may leave the base the percentage is taken of; under a flat fee nothing changes unless the scope does. If the designer buys furniture on your behalf, the contract should say whether a margin is added or trade prices are passed on, as a line of its own.

Turnkey contracts settle the question the other way, with furniture inside the price: Xworks publishes a base of about AED 1,500 a square metre that covers partitions, ceilings, flooring, MEP and furniture together. There the clause to read is the inclusions list, item by item.

Ask for proposals with contract terms

Approvals, licences and penalties

Name who files each approval and who pays for it. The community's rules decide what is at stake. In Dubai Holding communities, now including the former Nakheel villa communities, any job lasting more than a day needs a Minor Modifications Permit, and modifications made without approval carry a AED 2,000 penalty. Town Square's manual sets AED 50,000 for a major alteration made without approval.

Emaar's 2026 rules add the clause that matters most: residents bear sole responsibility for violations committed by the contractors they appoint. A contract can pass that cost on to the firm at fault, but the developer will still look to you first. The contract should also name the firm holding the Dubai Municipality accreditation, or the Abu Dhabi classification record, for anything that is built, because that is the firm the authority checks.

Payments, changes and ending the contract

Tie each payment to a delivered stage rather than a date, as the hub's guide to payment milestones explains for the build. Changes should be requested in writing and priced before they are made, with their effect on the dates. If either side ends the contract, you pay for the stages delivered and receive the drawings for them.

Two emirates write parts of the contract into their permits. In Ajman the maintenance permit application asks for the maintenance contract itself, plus the supervising consultant's contract where modifications are involved. In Sharjah, a consultancy filing drawings commits to telling the owner about the Municipality's standard contract form and to handing over every supplier guarantee for the materials used, so a Sharjah contract should list both.

Before you sign

1. Read the deliverables against the fee: every item named, nothing left as required.
2. Check the registration of whichever firm will build any part of the design.
3. Confirm the drawings pass to you on payment of each stage.
4. See the change and termination clauses priced, not only promised.
5. Check who pays community penalties caused by the firm's own site.

The hub's build quote checklist covers the contract that follows. Each studio we brief sends its contract terms with its proposal, which is how we shortlist: clauses and fees, read side by side.