Shared rent and Right to Buy scheme
Question
In September 1995, a lady got a council flat on rent. She paid rent which includes service charge on this flat with her benefits and work (cleaning jobs, bakery work, any cash in hand jobs). The service charge was not subsidised by any benefits and paid for out of her own pocket. The service charge was for heating and hot water. Her daughter paid towards rent when she started to work in 2004 until she married in 2008. Her son started to work in 2009 so the council wanted him to pay towards rent as he had an income so he started to pay towards the rent in 2010. He got married in 2014. Both he and his wife worked and paid towards the rent. In all instances, the more income the children made, the less benefit the mum received.
They enquired to buy the flat in 2016 under the right to buy scheme and the council valued the flat for £59000. A discount was given of £41300, which was 70% because the mother paid rent over the years (50% of the discount was accumulated in the first 5 years and the other 20% was accumulated at 2% every year for 10 years). The maximum discount was reached in 2010. The son paid the remaining £17,700 and the flat was purchased on both the mother and the son’s name. The flat could not be bought solely by the son without the mum’s name. Legally, both mum and son own the property 50:50.
Before the purchase, the mother paid all the utility bills. The council tax was paid by the working son topped up by the council tax benefit mum was entitled to. After the purchase, the mother continued to pay the electricity bill and water bill while the son took care of the service charge and council tax.
From moving in to the flat, until the son got married, the mother would pay for decorating, furnishings and appliances. After the son married, if anything was purchased in the house, it was usually paid half by the mother and half by the son. The mother decorated her own bedroom, and the son decorated his own bedroom and small box room. The mother then moved into the small bedroom and the son moved into her old room.
The son now wants to sell the flat and buy a larger house but the mother does not want to continue living together with him as the living arrangements and the mood in the house does not suit her, so she asked for her share in the flat upon the sale of it, but the son has said she has no share, as she has not paid for the flat. The mother believes that the 70% discount that was accumulated, was accumulated by her in the first 15 years of residing in this flat and later when her son was paying rent, that did not add to the discount that she had already accumulated, as the maximum discount was 70%, so his £17,700 was him buying a share in the flat and did not mean that he owned the whole flat.
The son has said that he needs the full sale money to help him buy another property outright. If he does not, he will not be able to afford the mortgage. The son has asked a Mawlānā on this matter, and he had advised that the mum does not have any share at all.
My question is that is the mother entitled to a share of the sale or not?
بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم
Answer
We have had to amend the question to make it readable and understandable. Questioners are requested to use appropriate grammar and complete sentences, and also kindly review the question before submitting.
In relation to your question, it is important to begin by highlighting the status of the mother within the Quran and Sunnah. The Prophet ﷺ once advised a companion wishing to travel to fight in the path of Allah to hold on to her mother because Paradise is beneath her feet (Sunan al-Nasāʾī, 3104; Sunan Ibn Mājah, 2781). The mother is the one who nurtured the family and if it was not for her role for many years, the property would not have been possible to purchase at the price that it was purchased. It is therefore important to take all these factors into account and also strongly recommended that the mother is allowed to live in the property if she wants to, even if she does not own it 100% and that a mutual understanding is reached between everyone concerned regarding the ownership.
Now, to the specifics of your question, 30% of the property belongs to the son because he contributed £17,700, which was 30% of the property value. Likewise, at least 62% of the property belongs to the mother because 58% of the discount was accumulated during the nine years between 1995 and 2004 during which she solely paid the rent and a further 4% was accumulated between 2008 and 2010 during which she solely paid the rent. In relation to the remaining 8% of the property, a Ṣulḥ (amicable settlement) is suggested because there does not appear to be an agreement in place. It is customary for children living with parents to gift a part of their income to their parents to support in the household expenditure. If this is the case, then the 8% is also owned by the mother, making her total ownership 70%. If, however, this is disputed by the daughter, then it is suggested to divide the 8% by four years, with 2% allocated to each year, and to apportion the percentage for each year to the mother and daughter based on how much rent each contributed.
It therefore follows from this that it is incorrect to suggest that the mother has no share in the property.
Allah knows best
Yusuf Shabbir
18 Rabīʿ al-Thānī 1446 / 22 October 2024
Approved by: Mufti Shabbir Ahmed and Mufti Muhammad Tahir
