What can I do if my landlord keeps ignoring AC and water repairs in Dubai?

In Dubai, maintenance is the landlord's responsibility unless your contract clearly shifts it to you — so months of acknowledged but unfixed AC and water problems put him in breach, not you. But resist the tempting shortcut: do not simply deduct repair costs from the rent on your own. Withholding or short-paying rent without authorisation can flip you into breach and hand the landlord the upper hand. Sequence it properly instead. Send a written notice — email or registered letter, not just chat messages — listing the defects, referencing your earlier reports, and giving a clear deadline to fix them. Gather your evidence in parallel: the message history showing he acknowledged the issues, photos and videos, dates the AC failed, and a contractor's quote for the works. If the deadline passes, file a case at the Rental Disputes Centre, which can order the landlord to carry out the repairs, authorise you to repair and recover or offset the cost, and in suitable cases adjust the rent for the period the property fell short. For habitability problems like failing AC in summer, the municipality can also inspect. A licensed UAE lawyer can run the RDC filing for you, though many tenants handle straightforward repair cases themselves.