Q: My cousin acquired an old 2 bedroom house from the Municipality of a certain place for a price of R 25 000.00 around 1989, paying it off in installments plus interest on the balance. This house was incomplete, just an empty shell with no roof, doors or windows, on a piece of land. Thereafter he started renovating it. One of the conditions was that my cousin cannot sell this property to anybody and if he needs to sell it then he must sell it to the municipality, as he was bound by a clause that this property will only be transferred onto the my cousins name after a period of 20 years.
After a while we met on an occasion and I enquired as to how far he was with the renovation when he told me that he had stopped due to finance. My cousin was going to return it to the municipality when he offered it to me as we have the same initials, same first name and same surname. As I was looking for a property at that time I decided to take it over and he asked me to pay him whatever he invested in renovations and continue paying off the balance of installments including the rates and the interest, light and water accounts. When the balance was paid off then we will make arrangements to have the said property double transferred firstly onto his name and thereafter onto my name. I paid him whatever was owing to him (cent for cent) and I took over the property verbally (as in a willing buyer and a willing seller) without signing any documents. On completion of the renovations I moved in and as the years passed on I worked very hard even over weekends and paid off the balance owing to the municipality. The above property became freehold. I know that in the eyes of the land and the law my cousin is the legal owner of the above property.
My Question:
- In the eyes of Allah and the Islamic law who is the legal owner of the above property after all dues were paid to my cousin.
- Does my cousin have any authority to take out any loan against the above property, without my permission although the said property is still on his name.
A:
- The purchaser is the owner. The clause that the municipality had made is not binding according to shari`ah.
- It is not proper for him to take the loan against the property.
البيوع قال البيع ينعقد بالإيجاب والقبول إذا كانا بلفظي الماضي مثل أن يقول أحدهما بعث والآخر اشتريت (الهداية 3/ 18)
Answered by:
Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)