Debt and Loan: Settling a Debt After Death of Both Parties When Property Value Has Changed

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Debt and Loan: Settling a Debt After Death of Both Parties When Property Value Has Changed

English:

Question #1747:

A woman borrowed a sum of money equivalent to one-third of the value of the house she bought. Both the parties, lender and borrower, agreed that the borrower should return the money when she could afford it. However, the woman’s son gave the lender a check for the amount of the debt as surety. In the past four years, both parties died. Their respective heirs want to settle the matter. How should they go about it? Is it by way of relinquishing possession of one-third of the property to the lender’s inheritors or would the amount written in the check do?

Answer #1747:

The lender’s heirs have no right to the property. They are entitled to get the amount of the debt (considering compensation for the decrease in purchasing power of the money) from the borrower’s heirs if she has left sufficient money to settle it.

-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Debt and Loan