Saudi Arabia’s New Enforcement Law (1447H): What Changes for Landlords, Tenants and Real Estate Offices

Saudi Arabia has issued a new Enforcement Law (also called the Execution Law) by Royal Decree No. M/237 dated 3/11/1447H. It takes effect on or about 28 October 2026 and replaces the Execution Law of 1433H. It matters to anyone dealing with rentals, because it governs what happens once a lease or judgment reaches the Enforcement Court: the deadline to pay, attachment of assets, travel bans and eviction.

When does the new Enforcement Law take effect?

The law was issued by Royal Decree No. M/237 dated 3/11/1447H (20 April 2026), based on Council of Ministers Decision No. 746 dated 26/10/1447H, and published in the Official Gazette Umm Al-Qura on 14/11/1447H (1 May 2026). Article 65 provides that it takes effect 180 days after publication; counting from 1 May 2026, the effective date is 28 October 2026 (17/5/1448H).

The law has 65 articles in seven parts and replaces the Execution Law issued by Royal Decree No. M/53 dated 13/8/1433H and its amendments. Article 64 requires the Minister of Justice to issue the Implementing Regulation within 180 days of the law’s issuance, to apply from the law’s effective date, and the Ministry of Justice put the draft regulation on the Istitlaa platform for public comment until 29 September 2026. Many practical details are left to that regulation.

Is a lease documented on Ejar still an enforceable instrument?

Article 7 lists the enforceable instruments. Paragraph (h) covers “contracts and documents that have the status of enforceable instruments under a law or a resolution of the Council of Ministers”, whereas the matching clause in the old law referred only to instruments with that force “under a law”. The new law does not mention leases by name, and it contains no provision removing the status that Enforcement Courts have given the unified residential lease documented on the Ejar network since the Minister of Justice directed, in July 2018, that it be accepted as an enforceable instrument.

Under Article 8, if the right in a contract of this category depends on performance of an obligation that cannot be seen from the contract itself, the applicant may attach a report from an expert body approved by the Ministry of Justice proving that performance. A lease not registered on the electronic network has no administrative or judicial effect under Council of Ministers Decision No. 292 dated 16/5/1438H.

What changes in collecting unpaid rent?

• Five working days: if five working days pass after the debtor is notified of the enforcement order, or after public announcement where notification is impossible, without payment, compulsory enforcement starts immediately. The debtor gets ten more working days if he provides a bank guarantee covering the debt (Article 18).
• Credit reporting and attachment: licensed credit information bureaus are notified of the non-payment, and the debtor’s current and future assets are attached, including amounts owed to him by public entities (Article 18).
• Daily fine: the court may impose a fine of up to SAR 5,000 for each day enforcement remains incomplete, up to a cap set by the Implementing Regulation; the proceeds go to the State Treasury, not to the creditor (Article 18).
• Travel ban on request: once the deadline passes, the court orders a travel ban at the creditor’s request for up to three years, extendable by a new request to a total of six years, and it ends when the enforcement request ends. It is lifted if the debtor needs treatment abroad under an approved medical report, the debt is a small amount as defined by the regulation, his profession requires travel, the ban would harm him, or he discloses assets sufficient to pay (Article 19).
• Disclosure and asset tracing: the debtor must disclose his assets from the date of notification. Where there are signs of concealment or smuggling, the court may, at the creditor’s request, order the debtor’s agents, financial counterparties and debtors to disclose within ten working days, and order his assets traced and suspected recipients questioned (Articles 15, 20 and 21).
• Ten-year limit: an enforcement request is not accepted if more than ten years have passed since the instrument fell due (Article 11).

Some assets remain exempt from attachment, including the home where the debtor and his dependants live and their means of transport within what suffices them, and government subsidies. For debts other than maintenance (nafaqa), no more than one third of wages or salary and one quarter of a retirement pension may be attached (Article 26).

How does eviction work under the new law?

Eviction is “direct enforcement” because it requires an act. If the occupant does not vacate within five working days of notification of the enforcement order, the court immediately orders the competent force, meaning the police or the competent security authority, to act. If that is not possible, or the act must be performed by the occupant personally and he does not do it, the court orders a travel ban at the creditor’s request and imposes a fine of up to SAR 10,000 per day, capped by the regulation (Article 36).

If thirty working days pass after these measures without compliance, the court, at the creditor’s request, orders the person imprisoned for up to 180 days, which may be extended. Imprisonment is not allowed for anyone under eighteen, a person whose illness makes imprisonment unbearable under an approved medical report, a pregnant woman or a mother of a child under two, or an ascendant or descendant of the creditor, and the right is not extinguished when the term ends (Article 37).

The rules for vacating the property and for dealing with belongings left inside when their owner does not collect them are left to the Implementing Regulation. The old law (Article 72) required such belongings to be handed to the judicial storekeeper and sold at auction after two months if the occupant did not collect them.

Can a tenant who does not pay be imprisoned? What about “service suspension”?

Under the old law, a debtor who did not pay, or did not disclose assets sufficient to pay, within five days was deemed a defaulter and was immediately banned from travel and barred from issuing powers of attorney over assets, and the judge could also bar government entities and financial institutions from dealing with him, the measures commonly known as service suspension, and could imprison him until enforcement was complete (Articles 46 and 83).

In the new law, coercive imprisonment is limited to direct enforcement under Article 37; there is no imprisonment to force payment of a money debt, the text does not restate the power to bar government entities and financial institutions from dealing with the debtor, and the mechanisms for enforcing attachment and fines are left to the regulation. However, the decree temporarily keeps the insolvency provisions of the old law until a civil insolvency law is issued, including the power to imprison a debtor who claims insolvency while there are signs he is hiding assets, for up to five years, to establish his true condition. Concealing assets, deliberately obstructing enforcement and giving misleading information remain crimes punishable by up to three years in prison, a fine of up to SAR 1 million, or both (Article 50).

What alternatives and settlements does the law allow?

• Documented settlement: settlement agreements and conciliation documents notarized under the Notarization Law, or issued by bodies authorized by law, are enforceable instruments in their own right (Article 7).
• Ending the request by agreement: the request ends if the creditor ends it by agreement with the debtor or releases him, and the creditor then bears the enforcement costs unless they agree otherwise (Articles 32 and 43).
• Voluntary sale: the court may allow the debtor to sell his assets voluntarily where this serves enforcement, and a debtor whose assets exceed the debt may nominate which asset is enforced against first (Articles 25 and 29).
• Making the creditor accept payment: if a creditor refuses to accept a right proven by an enforceable instrument, the debtor may ask the court to order him to accept it; if that fails, the court records it and takes steps enabling the debtor to discharge the debt (Article 10).
• Electronic procedures: enforcement decisions and steps are taken through approved electronic means, with conventional methods used only when those are not possible (Article 62).
• Enforcement service providers: the Ministry of Justice licenses enforcement service providers, including asset-tracing and asset-recovery providers, judicial sale agents and judicial custodians, and enforcement steps may be delegated to them, except imprisonment, travel bans, deciding disputes and grievances, and issuing judgments (Articles 60 and 61).

The text of the law contains no separate mechanism for paying a debt in instalments.

Comparison: the 1433H law and the 1447H law

What changes for landlords, tenants and real estate offices?

Landlords

• Document the lease on Ejar: it is your route to enforcement without a lawsuit, and the regulatory provisions governing the landlord-tenant relationship issued by Royal Decree M/73 require landlords to apply to register any unregistered lease.
• A travel ban is no longer automatic: you must request it once the deadline passes, and it is capped at six years.
• A promissory note or bill of exchange taken as security for rent is enforceable after the effective date only if registered on the national electronic platforms; those issued before the effective date keep that status for one year only.
• Close the enforcement request once you have been paid, within the period the regulation sets: deliberately delaying closure, or requesting an enforcement step, in order to harm the debtor is a crime punishable by up to three years in prison, a fine of up to SAR 100,000, or both (Articles 42 and 53).
• The regulation will set the cases in which the debtor must be given notice to pay before an enforcement request is registered (Article 12). From that notice the debtor’s assets secure the debt, and later dispositions such as gifts or paying a debt early can be challenged by a lawsuit to annul them (Articles 23 and 24).

Tenants

• You have five working days from notification of the enforcement order to pay or vacate, and ten more working days to pay if you provide an adequate bank guarantee.
• You must disclose your assets from the date of notification; hiding them or giving misleading information is a crime (Article 50).
• Filing an enforcement dispute or grievance does not automatically stop enforcement unless the competent authority decides so (Article 47), and grievances against procedural orders and decisions must be filed within ten working days (Article 46).
• If the landlord refuses to accept rent proven by an enforceable instrument, you can ask the court to order him to accept it (Article 10).
• If the property you occupy is sold at an enforcement auction, you are not required to vacate at the buyer’s request if you occupy it under an enforceable instrument that includes a right to use the property (Article 31).

Real estate offices

• Update follow-up templates to count working days rather than calendar days, and to track travel-ban requests and their duration.
• Keep recognised proof of payment: since 15 January 2024, no proof of payment outside Ejar’s digital channels (mada, and SADAD with biller number 153) is recognised for new residential leases, according to the Real Estate General Authority.
• Record the due date of every instalment, because the ten-year limit runs from the due date.
• Watch for the Implementing Regulation to learn the prior-notice cases, the small-debt threshold, and the eviction and belongings procedures.

Amlakire helps owners and offices keep track of contracts, due dates and payment records, the data any enforcement request relies on.

What happens to judgments and requests from before the effective date?

• Judgments, orders and decisions issued before the law takes effect remain valid under the rules in force before it (Clause Second of the decree).
• The law does not apply to enforcement-dispute cases in which final judgments were issued before it took effect (Clause Third).
• Bills of exchange and promissory notes issued before the effective date that meet all conditions except registration on the national electronic platforms remain enforceable for one year after it (Clause Fifth).
• The old law’s provisions on precautionary attachment and on insolvency continue temporarily until they are moved to the Law of Procedure before Sharia Courts or a civil insolvency law is issued (Clauses Sixth and Seventh).

Beyond these points, the decree sets no detailed transitional rule for pending enforcement requests, so watch for Ministry of Justice guidance and the Implementing Regulation.

Sources

The text of the Enforcement Law issued by Royal Decree No. M/237 and Council of Ministers Decision No. 746, and the text of the Execution Law issued by Royal Decree No. M/53 of 1433H, both from the Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers; the news of the Minister of Justice’s directive to accept the unified residential lease as an enforceable instrument (Saudi Press Agency and Argaam, July 2018); the regulatory provisions governing the landlord-tenant relationship and the announcement restricting residential rent payments to digital channels (Real Estate General Authority); and reports of the draft Implementing Regulation on the Istitlaa platform (Al-Jazirah and Al-Weeam newspapers, 7 September 2026). This article is general information and is not a substitute for advice from a licensed lawyer on an actual case.