How to complain to Sanadak about a travel insurer

Sanadak handles insurance and banking complaints. File yours with Sanadak through its website or mobile app.¹ Sanadak may explain the process to you, but it does not argue your case.²

Can Sanadak take your complaint?

It may, if you are a person, a sole proprietor or a small or medium business and your complaint is about an insurer licensed in the UAE, and none of the grounds for rejection below applies. That includes foreign insurers licensed in the UAE and takaful companies. The definition has no residency limit. You can complain for yourself, as an actual or potential beneficiary, or for someone else, for example as their legal representative or guardian.²

Sanadak may accept complaints about:

• how an insurer provided or offered a product or service
• a failure to provide one for reasons that discriminate on family or socio-economic status, gender or minority group
• loss or harm through deceptive, misleading, fraudulent or unfair conduct.²

Check Sanadak’s eligibility questions before you start.

What must you do before you go to Sanadak?

Make an official complaint to your insurer and wait for its answer. Sanadak’s process has five steps: identify the complaint, try the insurer first, choose a channel (online, mobile app, phone or in person), give details and documents, and wait for a response.³

Its eligibility check asks:

1. Are you a natural person, sole proprietor or small or medium business?
2. Is a court handling the complaint?
3. Have you complained about the same issue before?
4. Did you make an official complaint to the insurer?
5. Have 15 calendar days passed with no written response, or with a response you are not satisfied with?⁴

Your insurer must tell you in writing that you can go to Sanadak and give you its contact details.² GIG Gulf’s wording prints 800SANADAK, 800 72 623 25 and info@sanadak.gov.ae.⁵ AIG’s states your right to refer to Sanadak, with an address at the Emirates Institute of Finance, Abu Dhabi.⁶ Daman’s prints the Sanadak website and 800SANADAK.⁷

Send your complaint to the insurer by email or through its website, so you hold a dated copy.

How long must you wait for your insurer’s answer?

Sanadak’s eligibility page says 15 calendar days. Its FAQ says 30 calendar days, and its regulation says at least 30 complete business days.

Arabian Business reported on 20 October 2025 that consumers allow a licensed financial institution up to 15 calendar days.¹⁰ Ask Sanadak which waiting period applies before you file.

When can Sanadak reject your complaint?

Sanadak can reject a complaint when:

• the matter is or has been before a UAE court
• you did not raise it with the insurer first
• you did not give the insurer the time in Table 1
• the time limit has passed
• it is mainly about the insurer’s risk management, internal pricing or anti-money laundering policy
• it is already settled.²

It can also refuse or stop a complaint it has considered before with no new evidence, or where the insurer is offering a reasonable amount for your actual loss. Sanadak’s own list adds complaints that are identical in nature and complaints outside the Central Bank’s mandate.⁴

How long do you have to file?

3 years from the conduct you are complaining about, or 2 years from when you became aware of it, whichever ends later. If the conduct continued, the time counts from when it stopped.²

Sanadak may take a later complaint if it considers that fair. It looks at whether the insurer told you of your right to complain, any negotiations, and extraordinary circumstances, among other things.²

This limit is separate from your policy’s deadline for telling the insurer about a claim. That deadline is in how to make a travel insurance claim.

What happens after you file?

Sanadak’s resolution page lists 3 business days to acknowledge your complaint and up to 15 calendar days for an initial response. You can track the case through the portal, by SMS and by email.¹¹

Answer any request for more information inside the 10 business days.

How does a complaint end?

Sanadak upholds it, partly upholds it or rejects it. It can uphold a complaint where the insurer acted against Central Bank rules, acted in a deceptive, misleading, fraudulent or unfair way, acted for an improper motive or on an irrelevant ground, or gave no satisfactory explanation, among other grounds.²

If it upholds your complaint, Sanadak can tell the insurer to review or put right what it did, give reasons or change a practice, or recommend that it pays a reasonable amount for your actual loss. The insurer complies within the period Sanadak sets, and reports in writing no later than 14 business days after that period ends.² If you accept the outcome, the case closes within 5 working days.¹¹

Can you appeal Sanadak’s decision?

Yes. You or the insurer can refer the decision to the Insurance Dispute Resolution Committee within 30 complete business days of its issue. If nobody does, the decision is final and enforceable.² Sanadak says the committee sits within Sanadak and aims to decide within 20 working days of receiving all the documents, which may be extended.⁹

Above AED 100,000 a decision is not immediately final. The insurer or you can challenge it in the Court of Appeal within 30 days of its issue or of learning of it.¹²

Keep Sanadak’s decision letter, because an appeal starts from its date.

What does a Sanadak complaint cost?

Nothing to file, according to Sanadak’s FAQ. An appeal costs AED 500.⁹ The insurer may not recover its Sanadak costs from you. The Chief Ombudsman may waive all fees if you have little or no means, and may waive the appeal fee.²

Sanadak’s resolution page says the appeal fee is refunded if the appeal goes in your favour.¹¹ Other FAQ answers and the regulation say it may be refunded, or refunded at Sanadak’s discretion.⁹²

Do you have to go to Sanadak before court?

Sanadak’s FAQ says people complaining about an insurer have to go to Sanadak first, not to the courts.⁹ Federal Decree-Law 6 of 2025 says claims from insurance contract disputes are not accepted unless they were first presented to the committees.¹²

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The small print

• Legal basis. Under Federal Decree-Law 6 of 2025, a customer may complain to the unit set up under Art 148(2) if a dispute arises (Art 148(4)). That unit is Sanadak. The AED 100,000 line is Art 148(6), the Court of Appeal route Art 148(7) and the rule on presenting disputes to the committees Art 148(8).¹² Ombudsman Unit Regulation N 1659/2023 took effect on 15 March 2023.²
• Article references in the Regulation. Not advocating for complainants, Art 2.2.3. Complaints accepted, Art 4.1.1. Grounds to reject, Art 4.1.2, and other grounds, Art 4.1.6. Notice of the right to go to Sanadak, Art 4.3.7. Filing limit, Art 4.4.1, continuing conduct and late complaints, Art 4.4.3. Grounds to uphold, Art 4.7.2. Directions to the insurer, Art 4.10.1, and its report, Art 4.10.3. Appeals, Arts 4.8.1 and 4.8.2. Costs, Art 4.3.3(5). Fee waivers, Arts 4.2.2 and 6.1.4.²
• Timelines. Sanadak’s page lists labels and periods in order, and Table 2 pairs them in that order. The withdrawal, additional information, appeal and action periods match Arts 4.1.5, 4.1.8, 4.8.2 and 4.10.3. The Regulation gives no figure for acknowledging a complaint or for an initial response, and Art 4.4.4 leaves such standards to Sanadak. Art 4.5.5 gives parties up to 10 business days for an initial submission, where Sanadak’s page gives 3.¹¹²
• Appeal fee refund. One FAQ answer says appeal fees will be refunded when the decision favours the appellant. Others say the fee may be refundable, or can be refunded at Sanadak’s discretion.⁹ Art 6.1.4 says a party seeking an appeal may be required to deposit the fee, which may be refundable, and the Regulation’s definition says it may be refunded at the discretion of the Ombudsman Unit.²
• Filing limit in Daman’s wording. Daman Alami prints the two limits joined by “or”, without the words on which ends last.⁷ Sanadak’s FAQ says whichever is longer.⁹
• First instance. Sanadak’s FAQ calls the Insurance Dispute Resolution Committee the first instance of any complaint about insurers. Art 4.8.1 makes it the route for referring a Sanadak decision. Ask Sanadak which applies to your case.
• Policies Sanadak may not reach. The definition of an insurance company covers insurers licensed in the UAE. It does not say whether a visitor with a policy from a non-UAE insurer can use Sanadak. It also does not say whether a card benefit claim can go to Sanadak where the policy is issued to Mastercard, or who would answer it.