In brief:

• The clauses of off plan real estate sales contracts in the UAE customarily contain ‘Force Majeure' clauses, however, they do not necessarily conform to the traditional concept of force majeure. Such clauses typically include events in addition to acts of God and therefore they might be more appropriately called ‘Delay Event Clauses' i.e. an event that allows a person to delay performance.

• Although the UAE Civil Code, Federal Law No. 5/1985 does not specifically address force majeure it does provide a judge scope to reduce onerous obligations on contracting parties in extenuating circumstances.

• Developers and purchasers should pay attention to innocuous wording in so called ‘force majeure' clauses and shouldn't assume force majeure is so widely understood that it will cover all reasons for delay outside a parties' control.