It is one of the questions we are asked most often, and one of the worst answered online. Search it and you get either a global article written for someone who owns their kitchen, or a one-line “check with your landlord” that tells you nothing about what your landlord would actually be agreeing to.
The short answer is yes, you can. In a large number of cases you do not need to ask anyone at all, because nothing is being altered. The longer answer is worth a few minutes, because renting should change which system you buy — and this is one of the few situations where the counter-top machine is the better product rather than simply the cheaper one.
What a landlord is actually being asked to approve
Most tenancy contracts here carry a clause to the effect that the tenant will not make alterations or additions to the property or its fixtures without the landlord’s written consent. Read your own contract rather than taking ours for it — wording varies, and a furnished apartment or a short let often has a stricter version.
The useful thing is to understand which side of that line each type of installation falls on.
A permanent change to the property means something that leaves a mark when it is removed: a new hole drilled through a granite, quartz or stainless steel worktop, pipework cut into, a socket moved, a cabinet modified. That is the kind of thing the clause exists for, and it is worth asking about.
Not an alteration, in any meaningful sense, is plugging an appliance into an existing socket, standing it on the worktop, or connecting it to an existing valve using a fitting that unscrews again. A kettle is not an alteration. Neither is a machine that sits next to it.
Almost every disagreement we have seen between a tenant and a landlord about a water filter came down to a hole in a worktop, and almost every one of those could have been avoided by a two-line message before the technician arrived.
Why the counter-top is the right answer more often than people expect
A counter-top system sits on the worktop, takes a power socket, and needs nothing cut, drilled or permanently changed. When the tenancy ends you unplug it, put it in the box, and it comes with you. There is no reinstatement, no blanking plug, no conversation with anybody.
That is the whole argument, and for a tenant it is a strong one. A filter you can take with you is a filter you only buy once. If you move every couple of years — which a great many people here do — a machine that stays on your side of the move is worth more than the small saving on a cheaper unit that has to be undone and made good.
There is a second reason people miss. Cold water is the thing most people here actually want, and a tenant does not have to give it up to keep the installation reversible — there is a counter-top machine that delivers hot, cold and unchilled water with nothing drilled at all. Worth being precise about how that works, because the industry is sloppy with it: filtration does no cooling whatsoever. A plain filter — counter-top or under-sink — delivers water at tap temperature, and in a UAE summer tap temperature is warm, because the water has been sitting in a tank and pipework in the heat. Cold water comes from a machine with a chiller built into it. If cold matters to you, buy the chiller, not the filter, and do not let anyone sell you the second while implying the first.
The honest trade-off is footprint. A counter-top unit occupies worktop space in a kitchen that probably does not have much to spare, and in a small apartment that is a real cost. If you can live with it, everything else about the arrangement suits a tenant. You can see the machines set out against each other on our comparison page.
Under-sink, and the reality of putting things back
Under-sink systems are hidden, they free the worktop, and they are what most owners choose. They are not off the table for tenants — plenty of our under-sink installations are in rented apartments — but you should go in knowing exactly which parts are reversible and which are not.
The water connection is reversible
The system takes its water from the existing cold feed under your sink through a connector that fits onto the valve that is already there. Nothing is cut. At the end of the tenancy the connector comes off and the original arrangement is back in a few minutes. This part genuinely leaves no trace.
The tap is the part that is not
An under-sink system needs its own small tap, and that tap needs a hole. This is where the whole question actually lives.
Many kitchens here already have one. Sinks are commonly supplied with a second, capped hole intended for a soap dispenser or a pull-out spray, and if yours has one that is unused, the filter tap goes straight into it and nothing at all is drilled. This is the first thing to check, and it takes ten seconds — look for a small metal or plastic cap in the sink or the worktop beside the mixer.
If there is no spare hole, one has to be made through the worktop or the sink. That is permanent. When you leave, the tap is removed and a blanking plug goes in — tidy, but visible if anyone looks. That is a change to the property, and it is the one to get agreed in writing beforehand.
How to get that agreement in one message
Send your landlord or property manager a short note with a photo of the sink area. Say what is being installed, say plainly that a small tap requires one hole in the worktop, say that it will be capped when you leave, and ask for confirmation. A WhatsApp reply is a record. Keep it with your tenancy contract.
Two years later, when the deposit is being discussed, that message is worth considerably more than your memory of a conversation.
What to ask the building manager
In a tower, the landlord is often not the only party involved. A short list, in the order that saves the most time:
- Who approves minor works in the unit — the landlord, the property manager, or the owners association? In some buildings the answer is all three, and finding that out on the day is expensive.
- Does a technician need a work permit, pass or NOC to enter with tools? Many buildings require this and will turn someone away without it.
- What are the permitted contractor hours, and does the service lift need booking? A twenty-minute job can be lost to a two-hour lift slot.
- Is the kitchen a developer-fitted unit the landlord is contractually obliged to hand back unmodified? This occasionally changes the answer on drilling.
While you have their attention, ask one more thing that has nothing to do with filters and everything to do with your water: when was the building’s water storage tank last cleaned, and by which contractor? Dubai Municipality expects potable tanks to be cleaned and disinfected by an approved contractor at least twice a year. Most residents have never asked and have no idea. Our piece on whether Dubai tap water is safe to drink explains why that tank matters more than almost anything else between the desalination plant and your glass.
Short lets and furnished apartments
If you are in a furnished apartment, a short let, or anything where the kitchen is not really yours, treat the counter-top as the only sensible option and do not spend an evening arguing about it. The same applies if your lease has under a year to run, or if you are not sure yet whether you are staying. Buy the thing that moves.
When you move
A counter-top machine goes in the box and gets plugged in at the other end. An under-sink system is uninstalled and reinstalled — a normal service call, and one we do regularly for customers who have changed apartment. Either way, installation on a new system is free, as is delivery, and a typical under-sink or counter-top fit takes twenty to forty-five minutes.
One thing worth planning for rather than discovering: the filters inside any system have a service life measured in months, and moving does not reset it. If you are on a maintenance plan, tell us the new address and the schedule follows you.
The recommendation, plainly
If you rent and expect to move within two or three years, buy a counter-top system. If you own, or you are settled on a long lease and the worktop space matters more to you than portability, buy under-sink and get the hole agreed in writing first.
That is a shorter answer than the question usually gets, and it holds for almost everybody. If you would like it checked against your own household rather than a general rule, the filter finder takes a couple of minutes and asks about how you live, not about your budget.