Buying and Selling: Ruling on Vendor Breaching Salaf Sale and Offering Substitute at Higher Price

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Buying and Selling: Ruling on Vendor Breaching Salaf Sale and Offering Substitute at Higher Price

English:

Question #1584:

I bought a residential flat as a salaf transaction. I paid a part of the price by instalments for which I received a receipt. I’m still indebted for the remaining amount of the sale price. The vendors changed their minds and sold the flat to the housing bank. In exchange, I was offered another flat at a higher price. What is the ruling in this matter?

Answer #1584:

Buying the flat by instalments as a salaf transaction is invalid from the beginning, because among the parameters which confer validity on this kind of transaction is paying the total amount in advance to the vendor at the time and place of the sale. Should this be the case, the vendor should have no alternative but to give the buyer the property as described in the sale contract.
The vendor has no right to demand from the buyer anything over and above the agreed price. The vendor has also no right to give the buyer any property of different specifications. For his part, the buyer can refuse to take possession of any property whose specifications do not tally with those of the flat he originally bought. It is also within his right to refuse to pay a higher price for it.

-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Buying and Selling