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Inheriting Property: Understanding the Legalities of Joint Ownership and Oral Gifts

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Muftionline.co.za

Q: My father has passed away and left 1 wife and 3 daughters. His parents and all his sibling had passed away in his lifetime. My father has 2 nephews from his brothers.

I want to know that my father has 1 house, 1 car and 2 bank accounts. My father bought a house with a joint name with my mother and he orally gifted that house to my mother in his life and same goes with the bank account. One account belongs to my father and that account was his salary account and another account was a joint account he made for my mother’s use. In that account he used to transfer some of his salary to my mother in a joint account for monthly expenses.

So my question is that is the joint house and account also part of the inheritance? People are saying that he has a joint name on that house that’s why it is also distributed equally. But in the case of the house he gifted the whole house to my mother orally in front of his daughters and in the case of bank accounts he only operates his account for my mother’s use only.

Bismillaah

A: If he had given full control and ownership of the house to your mother then the house will not be part of the estate. The bank account will part of the estate.

And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.

Answered by:

Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)

This answer was collected from MuftiOnline.co.za, where the questions have been answered by Mufti Zakaria Makada (Hafizahullah), who is currently a senior lecturer in the science of Hadith and Fiqh at Madrasah Ta’leemuddeen, Isipingo Beach, South Africa.

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