The tenant sends a photo of a stained ceiling and three quotes come back: AED 350, AED 900 and AED 2,400, all for the same photo, none of them having seen the property. Quoting blind is how maintenance budgets get destroyed, because the cheapest quote is usually the one that assumed the smallest job. We price differently: a paid inspection, a written diagnosis, then a fixed quote that holds. This page explains exactly how European Technical's pricing works in Dubai, including the AED 200 inspection fee and precisely when you get it back.
How our Dubai maintenance pricing works: fixed written quotes before work, the AED 200 refundable inspection fee, contract rates and no invented per-job price l
A fixed quote is only as good as the diagnosis behind it, and a photo cannot diagnose a leak, an intermittent electrical fault or a weak AC. Our inspection fee is AED 200, which buys a technician's time on site, a proper diagnosis with measured readings, and a written report with photographs of what was found. The fee is fully refunded against the repair if you proceed with our quote, so for any job that goes ahead the inspection effectively costs nothing. If you take the report and use another contractor, you have paid AED 200 for a documented diagnosis, which is still cheaper than a guess. Emergency callouts follow the same structure: stabilisation first, then the inspection findings, then the fixed quote before any repair proceeds.
Every quote is written, itemised and fixed for the work described: labour, materials, access and cleanup, with a validity period stated. If we open a wall and find the fault is bigger than diagnosed, that is our finding to own, and any change to the quote is discussed and re-approved in writing before additional work proceeds. We do not do hourly billing with open-ended outcomes, and we do not add charges discovered after completion. For property managers, quotes are structured for forwarding to owners: fault, cause, recommended action, price, and the consequence of deferring, so an overseas owner can approve by email with full information. Approval thresholds are set by you, and nothing above yours proceeds without written sign-off.
You will not find a menu saying a leak repair costs X and a breaker replacement costs Y, because those numbers would be fiction. A leak traced to a shower seal in an accessible bathroom is a different job from the same symptom caused by a joint buried in a wall, and quoting both at one price means either overcharging the first or underquoting the second and recovering it somewhere. Anyone publishing fixed per-job prices without seeing the property is quoting blind. What we can commit to in advance: the AED 200 inspection, the fixed quote format, the refund of that fee on proceeding, and fixed labour rates for annual contract clients. The variable part, the repair itself, gets priced from evidence, not from a rate card.
Annual maintenance contracts are priced after inspecting the property, because the installation determines the work: unit counts, system types, plant access and visit frequency all change the number. Contract clients get fixed labour rates for the term, parts quoted separately with photographs of failed components, and quarterly portfolio summaries showing spend per property. That last item matters most for managers with approval thresholds to respect, because it turns scattered invoices into a forecastable budget line per unit. There are no summer surcharges, no after-hours premiums appearing retrospectively, and no bundling of parts into contract prices so failures can be manufactured to recover them. If a repair is not needed, the report says so, and that is also recorded.
Straight answers, before you book.
It covers a technician attending, diagnosing the fault with measured readings, and producing a written report with photographs. The fee is fully refunded against the repair if you proceed with our quote, so for any job that goes ahead the inspection costs nothing. If you use the report elsewhere, you have paid AED 200 for a documented diagnosis.
Not unilaterally. Quotes are fixed for the work described. If we find the fault is larger than diagnosed, we stop, explain, and re-quote in writing, and nothing additional proceeds without your approval. What we find after opening a wall is our diagnosis to own, and we do not bill our way out of a misdiagnosis.
Because a phone quote is a guess, and guesses destroy budgets. The same symptom can be a 300 dirham repair or a 3,000 dirham one depending on what is behind the wall. We quote from inspection evidence, in writing, and the inspection fee is refunded when you proceed with the work.
Speak to a technician now, not an answering service.