He sold his flat to his father at a low price to appease him

13-12-2013 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi. I need a fatwa on the following please: 1/ My Father sold me a house for £60,000 in 1998. It was meant to be on an interest-free loan to be paid back £600 per month basis. I decided to pay £1,000 each month to try to clear the loan quicker, after three months I had reduced the loan to £57,000. 2/ I was unmarried at this time and had 2 siblings who had left the family home without as much financial help as me. My Parents felt sorry for them and began to regret selling me the house. This house also generated rental income for them which they felt they would need in later life, especially as I was working hard to quickly pay off the loan. They began to make very painful criticism's, taunt's and sarcasms' at me. After few months I was beginning to feel crushed and I felt compelled to end their pressure by transferring a flat of mine into my Fathers name. This would give them rental income and stop them insulting me. 3/ My Father rented the flat for about 2 years and then sold it for £145,000. 4/ I am concerned that the form of transaction made to pay off the £60,000 is Islamically incorrect, as my flat was worth at least double than our agreed £60,000. 5/ Could you please let me know if the transaction made is also a type of riba, [interest] as Father clearly got a lot more than he gave me. Also then if it was done Islamically wrong then does this mean that my Father must pay me any money he got over our initial agreement of £60,000, as it is mine and not his? JazakAllah for your help in this matter and hope to receive your response on this matter very soon.

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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 is His slave and Messenger.

It is clear from the question that your father regretted selling the house to you; so you wanted to appease him and avoid his censure, so you registered the flat in his name and made him its owner. Then your father benefitted from the flat for a while and then he sold it for a higher price than the price for which you bought the house from him.

Based on this, there is no Riba in the transactions that occurred and you have no right to ask your father for income from rent or the money it was sold for.

Allaah Knows best.