Who Owns the House If the Major Amount Was Paid by My Parents?

Answered by Shaykh Farid Dingle

Question

Who owns the house if my parents paid a large share of my house and I paid the rest in credit? What about repairs and decorations that I have done over the past years?

Answer

I pray Allah gives you a clear and bright way out of your difficulty.

You are joint owners in the house and can only sell or buy either other shares by mutual agreement.

To work out your percentage share of the property, you would first take the original price (not value) and see how much you paid for it (the price less 120K GBP). It is irrelevant that you borrowed the money to pay for your portion.

Renovations

In a normal shared ownership relationship, you would consider the renovations/repairs you paid for over the years. However, in this setup, we assume that your parents saw the renovations/repairs as gifts.

If you want to challenge that assumption, you’d have to take them to court/Islamic arbitration.

However, if any developments or decorations are separable from the property, such that they do not increase the property’s value and are sold independently (e.g., a bedroom, a big fridge), then these are yours. There is no share for anyone else in them.

Your Siblings

As for your sister’s shares, unless your parents explicitly gave them fixed shares, they do not own anything.

Exit Strategy

Now, if you want to get out of the situation, you will have to use the law to either force a property division or sell your portion of the property. You can sell your share unilaterally (i.e., without your parents’ agreement), but I doubt that will work practically.

You will also have to tread extremely carefully: no parents like to be taken to court by their offspring.

[Shaykh] Farid Dingle
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Farid Dingle has completed extensive years of study in the sciences of the Arabic language and the various Islamic Sciences. During his studies, he also earned a CIFE Certificate in Islamic Finance. Over the years he has developed a masterful ability to craft lessons that help non-Arabic speakers gain a deep understanding of the language. He currently teaches courses in the Arabic Language.