Heirs Gifting An Inherited House To Their Mother

Question

“However an heir may dispose of his/her share of inheritance after taking possession of it as he/she wishes, whether by gifting it to one or all of the heirs or giving it out in charity.”

In line with the sentence above, assuming the current heirs (sons and daughter) would like their mum to have the house and therefore hand over their share to their mum. How does this handing over of the shares take place? How do they take ownership of the shares for the house and then hand this over to their mum?

Darul Ifta, Darul Uloom Azaadville · Accepted Answer

Upon the death of the Marhoom, each shareholder automatically becomes owner of the share that has been allotted to him/her. Now that his share is allotted to him he can do whatever he wants with it.

If the heirs decide to gift their shares in the house to their mother, there are a few conditions that need to be adhered to. If these conditions are not met, the act of gifting the share would not valid. In the queried case the following conditions will apply:

1. The Waahib (giver) has to mention to the Mowhoob Lahu (the recipient) that “I am giving my share in this house to you as a gift” and the recipient has to then formally accept the gift.

Thus, if the donor does not present the gift to the recipient or the donor presents it to him/her but he/she does not accept the gift, in both these cases the gift will not be valid and transfer of ownership will not take place.

After the acceptance of the gift takes place, the recipient of the gift has to take physical possession of it which is easy to do in the case of movable assets. In the case of an immovable asset such as a house, physical possession would take place by the giver emptying all his personal belongings from the house and then handing over the keys and total control of the house to the recipient. The giver should relinquish total possession and control of that asset in order for the gift to be valid. If the giver does not have any personal possessions in the house then simply by handing over the keys (if he has any) and by handing over full control over his share in the house the gift will be made valid.

If it is difficult for the children to remove their possessions from the house then this gifting can be achieved in the following way: instead of gifting it to the mother, the mother purchases the shares of each of her children for a small amount (e.g. R10). In this case the children should offer the mother their share of the house in exchange of a price (e.g. R10). The mother will then accept the offer and pay the amount agreed upon. As soon as the payment is done the purchased share becomes the mothers. In this way by purchasing the children’s shares the mother will be able to take full ownership of the house.

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