The rights of a valid renting contract are transferred to all heirs
13-5-2008 | IslamWeb
Question:
Respected Sir, Asalam u alykum! Please provide me the Islamic Qurani Hadith Fatwa of the followinq problem..... Q. We are four brothers and two sister, Our dad expired few months back, He was having shop in the city, one of our brohter was working with father. After expiration of our father the brother who was working with father got possession on shop and is giving nothing share to us. In his justification he is saying that as he was working with his father he has complete right to not share this shop with other brothers and sisters.The shop is basically the property of State Government and is in our possession since 1948.. plz provide us the Islamic Fatwa to this question as early as possible... The shop is basically the property of Govt. Wasalaaam Your brother in Islam
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
According to the view of the majority of the scholars 
a hiring contract is a contract which both parties are obliged to fulfil, and this contract is not invalidated by the death of one of the contracting parties. Therefore, if the hiring person dies and leaves a valid hiring contract, the rights of this contract are transferred to his heirs, and all his heirs are permitted to benefit from the rented property until the end of the period of the contract. Hence, an heir has no right to take control of the benefit over other heirs, even if this heir had worked with the deceased in the rented shop.
If this person had taken his wages for working in the shop, then he has no right in the shop or in any other property except his share like any other son. If he had not taken his wages and had worked as a volunteer with his father, then he is not entitled to anything. If he had not volunteered, he is entitled to the wages of a person who does the same job like him if there was no contract between him and his father which states another salary either greater or smaller than the wages of a person who does the same job like him.
For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 90535.
Allaah Knows best.