How Long Can a Business Hold a Security Deposit?

The short answer

In the UAE there is no general statutory cap on how long a business may hold a security deposit — the agreement governs. The obligation is to return it when the contract ends, less documented deductions (for tenancies, that duty comes from Article 20 of Dubai's tenancy law). In practice two clocks matter: the contractual clock you promise the customer, and the technical clock of how long a card authorization actually survives.

The contractual clock: promise it, then beat it

• Car rental: hold through the rental plus the fine-posting window — commonly released within 20–30 days of return.
• Tenancy: refund at handover or within the contract's stated period; 14–30 days is the common written range.
• Events, equipment, healthcare: hold for the service period plus a short, stated inspection window.

Whatever you choose, write it down. An open-ended hold is the single biggest generator of deposit disputes — the tenant version of that story is in what tenants do when deposits aren't returned.

The technical clock: card holds expire

A plain card pre-authorization does not last forever — most lapse after about 7 days, with some card types supporting longer windows. That is fine for a weekend hire and useless for a one-year tenancy. The solution is renewal: re-authorizing the hold before it expires so protection spans the whole agreement. Deposit platforms do this automatically — Akara keeps a hold alive from a few hours up to several months, renewing behind the scenes, so neither side thinks about card mechanics (the mechanics themselves are in pre-authorization vs charge).

Holding for a long time, fairly

1. State the duration and release trigger in the agreement.
2. Hold, don't charge — long charges tie up real cash and goodwill.
3. Release the moment the trigger fires; automate it if you can.
4. If you must extend, tell the customer before, not after.