Housing and Family

[Rabi'ya]

I am married and alhamdulillah we have an almost 3 year old daughter. We spent the first 3 year of marriage living with in laws and now alhamdulillah after looking far and wide we are now renting our own house.

My problem is this. Many people including my family and in laws seem to think that renting is somewhat of a shameful thing to do. They want us to buy a house becuase it looks good to other people. Personally, and my husband feels the same, we do not care about keeping up appearances. We are both very simple people and live relatively simple lives. We survive on a small income but alhamdulillah we are happy.

Is there any halaal way to purchase a house in the UK?I don't like the idea of a "halal mortgage" these seem suspicious and I;d rather keep away from them.The only thing that annoys me with renting is that even if I want to paint a room or change a door handle I have to get permission from the landlord. It would be nice to know that the resposibility lays with my husband and I for these things.

Anyway, any advice or info would be appreciated.

[aadil77]

Halal mortgages need more researching, there are some things that seem dodgy and seem to be covered up riba, here is how islamic bank responds to these Q's:

Q. You state that the rent is calculated on the outstanding amount of the Bank’s share of the
property under the Diminishing Musharaka Agreement. The example is calculated at the rent
rate of 6.95%. This seems like an interest rate. Is it permissible under Sharia’a to determine rent
in this way?
A. It is important to remember that we do not charge interest. We are the landlord and part
owner of the property and have a lease contract where we charge rent and as such all of our legal
documentation and our activities reflect this arrangement. However, to ensure that we give you a
competitive price and to ensure that we are in line with the rest of the market, we use the Bank of
England base rate as a bench mark to ensure that our product is priced competitively with other
products in the market. This has been approved by our Sharia’a Supervisory Committee.

Q. If I make payments late, why do I have to pay additional amounts? Surely this additional
payment is the riba?
A. There may be times when some customers make their payments late and as a financier there will
be additional administrative costs as a result of such late payments and these costs can be recovered.
Once the costs have been recovered any additional amount will be donated to charity and the Bank will
not profit from any extra income received

http://www.islamic-bank.com/imagesup...aflet_v1_1.pdf

[Rabi'ya]

I have read many time into the smll print surrounding the "halaal mortgages" offered in the UK and to date I am still not satisfied. It just seems like rebranding to me and using different terminology to make people feel they are fulfilling their faith.

So long as this suspicion remains in my mind I do not want to take such an option

Are there any other options? I mean we are saving up at the moment but it will literally take us a lifetime to save a substantial amount in order to purchase a house with cash. What about stocks and shares? I haven't looked into this option at all. It is not something which I understand and certainly wouldn't have the basic knowledge to make a judgement on.

[aadil77]

yeh if you want to buy a how a house fully mortgaged then you'd need to somehow invest your money in something that will give you enough

but for that you need good knowledge of the market

[cat eyes]

I have read many time into the smll print surrounding the "halaal mortgages" offered in the UK and to date I am still not satisfied. It just seems like rebranding to me and using different terminology to make people feel they are fulfilling their faith.

So long as this suspicion remains in my mind I do not want to take such an option

Are there any other options? I mean we are saving up at the moment but it will literally take us a lifetime to save a substantial amount in order to purchase a house with cash. What about stocks and shares? I haven't looked into this option at all. It is not something which I understand and certainly wouldn't have the basic knowledge to make a judgement on.

sister the halaal mortgages was especially created for muslims as alot of muslims were doing haraam. in the united kingdom and everywhere. Alhamdulilah we have this option.

[Rabi'ya]

sis cat eyes
If you read careflly about "halaal mortgages" in UK ( cant comment on other countries) they are pretty much the same as normal mortgages only they dont use the word interest, they use a different name such as "fee" or "charge" just by changing the name of a word doesnt make something halaal. Also there are many well educated and knowledgable people within the community in UK who are still unsure and say that it is either not permissible or it is doubtful at least. So I feel its best to stay away from the potentially harmiful situations. Its better to avoid it.

Allahu alam

[Twitch]

When you rent you're paying for someone else's mortgage. What's the difference?

[Rabi'ya]

Firstly I don't know if my landlord and landlady have a mortgage(I doubt they do on this property) and secondly it is not MY mortgage. my contract on my house allows me to stay in the property for a set period of time based on the set amount of rent I pay. renting is completely halaal. having a loan can be halaal as long as the terms of the loan do not include interest(or something dressed up as interest)

[Twitch]

Waalykum assalam...

I'm simply conveying what a Sheikh has said on the matter. If your landlord doesn't have a mortgage then obviously that's a different story, otherwise it's well known that people rent out properties to pay off the mortgage.