Leaving a Will: Challenging Inheritance After Many Years and Validity of Subsequent Property Sales
Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei
Leaving a Will: Challenging Inheritance After Many Years and Validity of Subsequent Property Sales
English:
Question #1854:
After 20 years of the death of her husband, and 4 years since her daughter sold her share of the estate, the wife of the deceased produced a document claiming that the entire estate of her husband belonged to her. However, she has maintained that she was in possession of this document all these years, yet she preferred to remain silent.
Should the division of the estate among the heirs be ruled invalid, and so, the sale of the daughter’s share? Assuming that it is void, is it correct to annul the subsequent property deed which is held by the buyer of the property that was sold by the daughter?
Answer #1854:
Even if we assume that the will, which has been produced by the mother, is genuine beyond any doubt, her silence and non-objection all this period since the death of her husband, and her daughter’s receipt of her share of the estate and its subsequent sale, are considered a tacit agreement by her to what has taken place.
Accordingly, she has no right to demand from her daughter to return what she had received of the estate. Nor has she the right to demand the return of the property from the buyer. Thus, the sale of the property by the daughter is deemed valid and it can, thus, remain in the ownership of the buyer.
-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Leaving a Will