Determining The Ownership Of A House

Question

My father and mother are staying in a council house. Father was paying towards the house. Before the house was paid off, they were told to bring their id’s and marriage certificate and sign papers and the balance of the account was settled by the council. The title deed then came with the house on both names.

My question is, does the house belong to my father only because he paid towards the house or to both of them because of the title deed?

Darul Ifta, Darul Uloom Azaadville · Accepted Answer

Your father is the owner of the house; your mother’s name being on the title deed does not give her the right of ownership of the property as per Shari’ah law.

However, if your parents are married according to civil law, then this may cause adversely affect the distribution of the property according to the Shari’ah law, i.e. if your mother or other family members are not prepared to submit to the Shari’ah law. If your father wishes to gift the entire property or part of it to your mother, merely verbally expressing his intention will not suffice, he will have to do so under the supervision of competent Islamic scholars so that technical errors are not made.

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