UAE Machinery Transfer Guide — Hayaza, Mulkiya, Customs & GCC Export

A buyer signs the order, the crane lands at Jebel Ali, the deposit clears — and then the real paperwork starts. This is the full UAE ownership-transfer playbook for heavy equipment, end-to-end: hayaza, RTA Mulkiya, EIAC / SIRA inspection, Bayan customs, trade-licence eligibility, insurance, inter-emirate moves, and GCC export.

Most of our buyers are seasoned UAE operators who have done this dance before. But every month we field a few first-time enquiries — a contracting firm growing into its own fleet, a sub-contractor moving from rentals to ownership, an investor buying a crane to lease out. For them the lattice of acronyms (hayaza, mulkiya, SIRA, EIAC, Bayan) is a fog. This guide is for them.

One framing point before we start. UAE machinery splits into two regulatory categories. Self-propelled, road-going units with a chassis number — truck cranes, all-terrain cranes, dump trucks, mobile concrete pumps — are registered with the relevant emirate's RTA and carry a Mulkiya. Yard-only equipment — excavators, wheel loaders, telehandlers, bulldozers, forklifts — generally is not road-registered. The transfer paperwork for a 50T truck crane and a 22T excavator therefore looks different. We flag the distinction at every step below.

1. Hayaza — the bill of sale that starts everything

"Hayaza" (حيازة) translates roughly as "possession" — but in UAE machinery practice it is a specific document: a notarised bill of sale that transfers ownership of an unregistered or yard-only unit from seller to buyer. It is the equivalent of the title transfer in markets where machinery does not get plates.

Hayaza is the document that matters for excavators, loaders, telehandlers, dozers, forklifts and other yard-only equipment, because there is no Mulkiya for those. It is also issued for road-registered units, but for those it sits alongside the Mulkiya transfer rather than replacing it.

What a hayaza includes

• Seller's full legal name (or company trade-licence name) and Emirates ID / trade-licence number.
• Buyer's full legal name and Emirates ID / trade-licence number.
• Equipment make, model, year of manufacture, chassis / serial number, engine number where applicable.
• Sale price (we always state this in AED inclusive of VAT for clarity).
• Date of transfer and yard / handover location.
• Condition statement — the document explicitly notes whether the unit is sold as-is or with any specific carve-out.
• Signatures and notary stamp.

When Al Razzaq issues hayaza

For our own stock — the units sitting in the Sajaa yard, including the live-stock XCMG QY50K-III cranes — we issue hayaza after the buyer has paid 100% of the agreed price. Our standard order flow places the final 50% balance at the moment of hayaza issuance, which is also when the unit is released to the buyer's transport. See our Order a Crane page for the full milestone breakdown.

For Trusted Network units — third-party stock listed on our platform under a partner contract — the partner issues hayaza directly to the buyer. Al Razzaq facilitates the introduction and contract but does not appear on the hayaza document. See Trusted Network Terms for that arrangement.

2. RTA Mulkiya transfer (registered chassis)

If the unit is road-registered — almost all truck cranes, all-terrain cranes, dump trucks, and prime movers fall in this category — it carries a Mulkiya, the UAE vehicle ownership card. Transferring a Mulkiya is a separate process from issuing hayaza, and it happens at the relevant emirate's traffic / licensing authority: RTA Dubai, Sharjah Police Traffic & Licensing Department, Abu Dhabi Police Vehicle Licensing, and so on.

What is needed at the counter

• Original Mulkiya in seller's name (must be valid — if expired, seller renews first).
• Hayaza (notarised bill of sale).
• Buyer Emirates ID + buyer trade licence (if buying under a company).
• Seller Emirates ID + seller trade licence (if selling under a company).
• Valid third-party insurance issued in the new owner's name from the day of transfer.
• Vehicle inspection certificate — for heavy machinery this is typically a fresh inspection at an authorised heavy-vehicle test centre, not the standard Tasjeel sedan lane.
• Clearance of any traffic fines or Salik tolls outstanding against the chassis.
• Transfer fee — varies by emirate and category, typically AED 350–700 for heavy vehicles.

Inter-emirate registration

You can register a unit in any emirate regardless of where it was last registered. If the seller's Mulkiya is from Dubai and the buyer wants the unit registered in Sharjah, the process is: surrender the Dubai Mulkiya, get an export-clearance certificate from RTA Dubai, then re-register at Sharjah Police. Some buyers do this routinely to get the unit closer to its eventual deployment area; others stay in the seller's emirate to avoid the round trip.

One subtle point: the unit's registration emirate determines which traffic-fine regime it sits under and which insurance products are available. For high-utilisation cranes that will travel between emirates, sticking with the original emirate often saves admin time.

3. SIRA & EIAC inspection certificates

UAE site safety regulations require that lifting equipment and heavy machinery in operation carry a current third-party inspection certificate. The two acronyms a buyer will encounter most often are SIRA and EIAC.

EIAC (Emirates International Accreditation Centre)

EIAC accredits inspection bodies that issue load-test and condition certificates for cranes, telehandlers, mobile platforms, and other lifting equipment. An EIAC-certified inspection is the standard requirement on most large UAE construction sites and within most ADNOC-discipline industrial sites. The certificate is typically valid for 6 to 12 months depending on equipment category and site policy.

The inspection covers structural integrity (boom, slew bearing, chassis), hydraulic-system pressure tests, electrical / control-system function, load-rated lift tests, and operational safety devices (anti-two-block, load moment indicator, outrigger lockouts). On used equipment we strongly recommend doing a fresh EIAC inspection at handover — the price of being turned away from a site after mobilising a 50T crane is much larger than the price of the inspection.

SIRA (Security Industry Regulatory Agency, Dubai)

SIRA's primary remit is security personnel, but in heavy-equipment context the term gets used loosely for Dubai-municipality crane-operator licensing and on-site lifting-supervisor certification. The actual operator-licensing scheme is run by Dubai Municipality / DCD; SIRA cards typically come into play for security-classified sites. If you are buying for general construction work, it is the EIAC equipment certificate plus a Dubai-Municipality-recognised operator licence that matters most.

ADNOC sites

ADNOC and its operating subsidiaries (ADNOC Onshore, ADNOC Sour Gas, etc.) have their own approved-vendor processes that sit on top of EIAC. A 50T truck crane heading to an ADNOC field needs the EIAC certificate plus ADNOC equipment-fitness approval, age-limit compliance (see our ADNOC age-limits guide), and operator HSE clearance. Allow extra lead time for that approval if your buyer's first deployment is ADNOC — typically 2 to 4 weeks.

4. Customs & the Bayan declaration

For any unit imported into the UAE — which covers our China-sourced cranes, our European-sourced telehandlers, and any unit that lands at Jebel Ali, Khalifa Port, or Sharjah Port — customs clearance is a pre-condition of issuing hayaza. The declaration system is Bayan, the federal UAE customs portal, run by the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs & Port Security.

What gets filed

• Commercial invoice (origin invoice in original currency, with AED equivalent).
• Packing list.
• Bill of Lading (the document showing the unit was loaded onto the vessel).
• Certificate of origin from the country of export.
• Insurance certificate covering the sea leg.
• Inspection certificate from origin (where applicable — most of our China-sourced units carry a TÜV or Bureau Veritas pre-shipment report; see our China sourcing process guide).

Duties and VAT on imports

UAE customs duty on heavy machinery is, in most cases, 5% of the CIF value (cost + insurance + freight) at landing. UAE import VAT is an additional 5% on the duty-paid value, recoverable for VAT-registered companies. Both are settled at the time of clearance.

What we hand to the buyer

For Al Razzaq's own stock that we have already imported, the buyer does not deal with Bayan at all — the unit cleared customs in our name when it arrived. The buyer receives, as part of the post-handover packet, a copy of the Bill of Lading and customs receipts proving the unit was lawfully imported and duties were paid. That packet is enough for any onward sale or for a downstream buyer to verify origin.

For Trusted Network units the partner provides the equivalent packet directly. For trade-in units that we sell on, the original buyer's customs paperwork follows the unit.

5. Trade-licence eligibility — who can buy what

UAE business law restricts certain machinery categories to companies whose trade licence permits the relevant activity. This bites most often on cranes and telehandlers, which can only be operated commercially under a trade licence covering "general contracting", "heavy equipment rental", "mechanical construction equipment", or similar. An individual on a personal Emirates ID can hold a Mulkiya in their own name, but they cannot put the unit to commercial use without an appropriate trade licence covering the operating entity.

Common compatible activities

• General contracting (الإنشاءات العامة) — covers most cranes, telehandlers, excavators, loaders.
• Heavy equipment rental (تأجير المعدات الثقيلة) — required if you intend to lease the unit out rather than self-operate.
• Civil engineering works — covers most earthmoving equipment.
• Building demolition — bulldozers, excavators, breakers.
• Mechanical & electrical contracting — telehandlers and small cranes for MEP scope.

If the trade licence is from a free zone (DMCC, JAFZA, Hamriyah, etc.), the activity codes inside the free zone determine eligibility, and the unit's deployment is generally restricted to the free zone or to projects executed under the free-zone licence in the wider UAE. Mainland operation of a free-zone unit usually requires a separate mainland licence or partnership.

6. Insurance transfer

Every road-registered heavy unit must carry valid third-party insurance — Mulkiya cannot be transferred or renewed without it. Many buyers also carry comprehensive cover (fire, theft, and own-damage), which is a meaningful line item on a 50T crane that costs AED 200,000+ to replace at parts level alone.

What changes at transfer

The seller's insurance does not transfer with the unit. The buyer must arrange a fresh policy in the buyer's name from the day of Mulkiya transfer. Practically, this means: get a quote from a UAE insurer (TJM, Orient, RSA, Sukoon — all have heavy-equipment desks), pay the premium, get the policy certificate, take it to the licensing counter alongside the rest of the transfer file. The seller can then cancel their old policy and claim a pro-rata refund.

Insurance for yard-only equipment

Excavators, loaders, telehandlers and bulldozers are not road-registered, so there is no compulsory third-party requirement on the unit itself. However, most main contractors require that any sub-contractor's plant on site be covered under a Contractor's All-Risk (CAR) or plant-and-equipment policy. Buyers usually fold the new unit into an existing CAR cover with a one-line endorsement.

7. Inter-emirate transfers

Moving a unit's operational base across emirate borders — say, from Sharjah to Abu Dhabi — does not require any transfer paperwork beyond keeping the existing Mulkiya valid. UAE traffic law treats all seven emirates as one road network for vehicle registration purposes; the Mulkiya is recognised everywhere.

Moving a unit's registered emirate — say, Mulkiya issued by RTA Dubai re-issued by Sharjah Police — is a two-step process:

1. Apply to surrender / "export" the registration at the original emirate's licensing authority. They issue a clearance certificate and the chassis is technically deregistered for a few days.
2. Apply to register at the new emirate, presenting the clearance certificate, hayaza or proof of ownership, valid insurance, and a fresh inspection certificate from the new emirate's authorised test centre.

Plan a working week from start to finish for this, and budget AED 700–1,200 in fees and inspection costs. Our experience is that buyers do this most often when consolidating a multi-emirate fleet under a single licensing regime — it's an admin convenience, not a regulatory necessity.

For yard-only equipment, "transfer" between emirates is purely physical. There is no registration to update; the hayaza in the buyer's name is the only document the unit travels with.

8. GCC export (KSA, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar)

Al Razzaq routinely delivers units to all four neighbouring GCC markets — KSA, Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar. Destination customs is the buyer's responsibility, but we provide the export-side paperwork at no extra charge. The delivery side is straightforward; the documentation side is where mistakes are expensive.

What we provide on the UAE export side

• Commercial invoice in AED with USD equivalent at day-of-issue rate.
• Packing list.
• Certificate of origin issued by Sharjah Chamber of Commerce.
• UAE export-customs declaration through Bayan.
• Hayaza or transfer document showing buyer is the new owner.
• Mulkiya export-clearance (if the unit was UAE-registered).

What the buyer's customs broker needs to handle at destination

The destination side varies by country but generally includes: import declaration, payment of destination customs duty (4–5% in most GCC states under the GCC common customs union, with some exemptions for in-licence operators), destination VAT where applicable, registration with the destination country's transport authority for road-registered units, and a fresh local inspection certificate.

Country-specific notes

• KSA. SASO conformity assessment can apply to certain machinery categories. Aramco-aligned sites have their own approved-vendor and age-limit rules — comparable to ADNOC in the UAE.
• Oman. Most heavy machinery imports from UAE clear under the GCC common customs union with minimal friction; truck cranes that will be road-registered need ROP (Royal Oman Police) registration.
• Bahrain. Smallest of the four markets but one of the easiest customs regimes; cross-border by King Fahd Causeway via KSA is standard.
• Qatar. Re-opened to GCC freight flows since 2021. Land transit goes via KSA; sea transit via Hamad Port. Qatari import duty is 5% on most heavy equipment.

Final UAE jurisdiction note: regardless of where the unit is delivered, our supply contract is governed by UAE law and any dispute is heard in UAE courts. Destination customs and registration are the buyer's responsibility — we draft contracts to make that explicit, because in practice the delivery is the easy bit and the import paperwork is where buyers occasionally get stuck.

Putting it all together

The simplified mental model: customs first, hayaza next, Mulkiya / insurance / inspection together, deployment last. Al Razzaq's job covers the customs side (for our own stock), then we issue the hayaza on full payment. The buyer's job is to put the unit into Mulkiya and insurance in the buyer's name, run a fresh EIAC inspection if it is needed for the buyer's first project, and confirm trade-licence compatibility before going live on site.

We will do as much of this with the buyer as makes sense. For first-time buyers we walk through every step in person at the yard handover. For repeat customers we hand over the document packet at the gate and they're on the road in twenty minutes.